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The knowledge bank of ESA’s R&D programmes

Thruster Pointing Mechanism Development

Programme
GSTP
Programme Reference
GT27?111MS
Prime Contractor
MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates Corporation
Start Date
End Date
Status
Closed
Country
Canada
Thruster Pointing Mechanism Development
Description

The increasing interest for Deep-Space cubesat is leading in the near future to the need of adequate deployment systems (``Cubesat Dispensers``) suitable for deep space applications, taking into account all the environmental (e.g. radiation) and mission constraints (e.g. need for power supply to the cubesat, possibility to upload SW updates, need for accurate release conditions).
The first potential use case has been identified in the Hera Planetary Defense mission, that intends to deploy two 6U cubesats around the Didymos asteroid binary system. Each of those CubeSats will be containerised in a standard deployment system. In addition, a set of requirements will be injected by ESA in the activity to ensure compatibility with the first use case.
The objective of the activity is to design, manufacture and test and Engineering Qualification Model for a 6U Dispenser suitable for deep space missions compatible with the Hera mission

Application Domain
Generic Technologies
Competence Domain
2-Structures, Mechanisms, Materials, Thermal
Initial TRL
TRL N/A
Target TRL
TRL N/A
Public Document