Space Net Deployment Experiment via Air-Bearing Satellite Simulators

This study presents a ground-based experimental validation of the net deployment using an air-bearing satellite simulation platform integrated with a pseudo-celestial navigation system. The experimental architecture, comprising custom-developed software systems and hardware simulators, was implemented entirely through in-house solutions, avoiding reliance on costly third-party technologies. Multiple satellite simulators equipped with air-bearing floating units achieved quasi-frictionless motion on precision-leveled marble surfaces. They also formed a distributed system with coordinated operation through local Wi-Fi communication, which enabled real-time exchange of kinematic parameters including position, attitude, velocity, and angular velocity between simulators. Each simulator was controlled by cold-gas thruster, which generates the control force in discrete characteristics. And the experiment was conducted to verify the ability of the controlled space net. It successfully demonstrated coordinated deployment and retraction of a flexible net structure (1 m × 1 m square configuration) across the planar testbed, validating the fundamental feasibility of satellite-guided net deployment in simulated orbital conditions.