Recent Advances in Space-Deployable Structures in China

Deployable space structure technology is an approach used in building spacecraft,especially when realizing deployment and folding functions.Once in orbit,the structures are released from the fairing,deployed,and positioned.With the development of communication,remote-sensing,and navigation satellites,space-deployable structures have become cutting-edge research topics in space science and technology.This paper summarizes the current research status and development trend of spacedeployable structures in China,including large space mesh antennas,space solar arrays,and deployable structures and mechanisms for deep-space exploration.Critical technologies of space-deployable structures are addressed from the perspectives of deployable mechanisms,cable-membrane form-finding,dynamic analysis,reliable environmental adaptability analysis,and validation.Finally,future technology developments and trends are elucidated in the fields of mesh antennas,solar arrays,deployable mechanisms,and on-orbit adjustment,assembly,and construction.

A Method for the Configuration Design of a Space Truss Deployable Mechanism and Its Application

A method based on the metamorphic principle is proposed for the analysis of the configuration design of a space truss deployable mechanism. The configuration change and correspondent topological graphs and adjacency matrixes at different work-stage of the mechanism, which is helpful to completely understand the composition and change rules of the metamorphic mechanism, are analyzed to indicate the metamorphic relationship in one working cycle. Furthermore, the static distance matrix, dynamic distance matrix and stiffness matrix of the mechanism are derived to assess the ability of the designed configuration to reveal some of the topological characteristics like compactness, dynamic sensitivity and stiffness. Using this proposed method in a space truss deployable mechanism helps the designer to evaluate its performance at the conceptual stage of design and make a rapid, reasonable selection for configuration design, which provides means for processing its type of analysis by computer.

Quasi-static Deployment Simulation for Deployable Space Truss Structures

A new method was proposed for quasi-static deployment analysis of deployable space truss structures. The structure is assumed a rigid assembly, whose constraints are classified as three categories:rigid member constraint, joint-attached kinematic constraint and boundary constraint. And their geometric constraint equations and derivative matrices are formulated. The basis of the null space and M-P inverse of the geometric constraint matrix are employed to determine the solution for quasi-static deployment analysis. The influence introduced by higher terms of constraints is evaluated subsequently. The numerical tests show that the new method is efficient.

Static analysis of synchronism deployable antenna

A 3D synchronism deployable antenna was designed, analyzed, and manufactured by our research group. This an-tenna consists of tetrahedral elements from central element. Because there are springs at the ends of some of the rods, spider joints are applied. For analysis purpose, the structure is simplified and modelled by using 2D beam elements that have no bending stiffness. Displacement vectors are defined to include two translational displacements and one torsional displacement. The stiff-ness matrix derived by this method is relatively simple and well defined. The analysis results generated by using software de-veloped by our research group agreed very well with available test data.

Design and Kinematics Analysis of Support Structure for Multi-Configuration Rigid-Flexible Coupled Modular Deployable Antenna

In order to meet the urgent need for diversified and multi-functional deployable antennas in many major national aerospace projects,such as interstellar exploration,the fourth phase of lunar exploration project,and the industrial application of Bei Dou,a deployable antenna structure composed of hexagonal prism and pentagonal prism modules is proposed.Firstly,the arrangement and combination rules of pentagonal prism and hexagonal prism modules on the plane were analyzed.Secondly,the spatial geometric model of the deployable antenna composed of pentagonal prism and hexagonal prism modules was established.The influence of module size on the antenna shape was then analyzed,and the kinematic model of the deployable antenna established by coordinate transformation.Finally,the above model was verified using MATLAB software.The simulation results showed that the proposed modular deployable antenna structure can realize accurate connection between modules,complete the expected deployment and folding functional requirements.It is hoped that this research can provide reference for the basic research and engineering application of deployable antennas in China.

Computational dynamics of soft machines

Soft machine refers to a kind of mechanical system made of soft materials to complete sophisticated missions, such as handling a fragile object and crawling along a narrow tunnel corner, under low cost control and actuation. Hence, soft machines have raised great challenges to computational dynamics. In this review article, recent studies of the authors on the dynamic modeling, numerical simulation, and experimental validation of soft machines are summarized in the framework of multibody system dynamics. The dynamic modeling approaches are presented first for the geometric nonlinearities of coupled overall motions and large deformations of a soft component, the physical nonlinearities of a soft component made of hyperelastic or elastoplastic materials, and the frictional contacts/impacts of soft components, respectively. Then the computation approach is outlined for the dynamic simulation of soft machines governed by a set of differential-algebraic equations of very high dimensions, with an emphasis on the efficient computations of the nonlinear elastic force vector of finite elements. The validations of the proposed approaches are given via three case studies, including the locomotion of a soft quadrupedal robot, the spinning deployment of a solar sail of a spacecraft, and the deployment of a mesh reflector of a satellite antenna, as well as the corresponding experimental studies. Finally, some remarks are made for future studies.

Deployment dynamics for flexible deployable primary mirror of space telescope with paraboloidal and laminated structure by using absolute node coordinate method

A nonlinear dynamic modeling method for primary mirror of Flower-like Deployable Space Telescope(F-DST)undergoing large deployment motion is proposed in this paper.To ensure pointing accuracy and attitude stability of the paraboloidal primary mirror,the mirror is discretized into equal thickness shell elements by considering shell curvature.And the material nonlinear constitutive relation of flexible mirror is acquired using Absolute Nodal Coordinate Formulation(ANCF).Furthermore,the primary mirror of F-DST can be regarded as a clustered multi-body system,and its dynamic equations of elastic deformation and deployment motion are established by virtual work principle.Finally,the deployment motion of primary mirror by different driving conditions are simulated,the results show that the vibrations of mirrors that driven by elastic hinge device are more than that driven by servo motor.In addition,single sub-mirror deployment process will perturb the pointing accuracy of primary mirror,and the multiple sub-mirrors simultaneously deploying will seriously affect all the sub-mirrors surface accuracy because of the coupling effect.Thus,there are theoretical value and practical significance for the controlling surface accuracy and attitude accuracy of space telescope.

Reduction of FWM noise in WDM-based QKD systems using interleaved and unequally spaced channels

To extensively deploy quantum key distribution（QKD） systems, copropagating with classical channels on the same fiber using wavelength division multiplexing（WDM） technology becomes a critical issue. We propose a user-based channel-interleaving WDM scheme with unequal frequency spacing（UFS-i WDM） to reduce the impairment on the quantum channels induced by four-wave mixing（FWM）, and theoretically analyze its impact on quantum bit error rate（QBER）. Numerical simulation results show that a UFS-i WDM can significantly reduce the FWM noise and improve QBER compared with the corresponding WDM scheme with equal frequency spacing（EFS）, especially in the case of nonzero dispersion shifted fiber.