Sugiyama Y., Shirako M., Araki K., Honda H., Nakamura Y., Kobayashi C.

The paper describes design and dynamics of a space boom for a 50 kg-class micro-satellite, tentatively code-named as SOHLA-1. The length of the boom is 425 mm and the mass 279 g. The present paper reports mainly the development of deployable hinge and arm of the space boom, and the corresponding dynamics and vibration test. Function of the hinge is to deploy the arm and make final rock after deployment. Aim of the paper is to demonstrate how the vibration test was useful in developing a space boom to be installed in a real micro-satellite. As the satellite is a kind of piggy-back satellite, the overall dimensions are restricted within a cubic space of 0.5 m x 0.5 m x 0.5 m. The geometrical restriction eventually gives a hard constraint in designing the space boom to support a magnetic sensor and possibly a monitor micro-camera of 100 g. The most interesting point of development of the present boom comes to the fact that designing, manufacturing, assembling and testing should be done by university students throughout development process. Firstly, a conceptual design of the boom is described. Every part of the boom was manufactured by NC machines operated by students to make a bread-board model (BBM). Deployment test showed that the design was basically well done. However vibration test of BBM revealed some weak points of the model. Modal testing of arm was also conducted to observe the vibration mode of the arm. The refined design was made to have an engineering model (EM). The boom EM was subjected to certification test on a shaker bed. The test results suggested some refinements to be done for proto-type model (PM).