Mechanical Analysis of a Deployable Flexible Thermal Protection System for HyperSat, a CubeSat Platform

Georgia Tech has developed the Hypersonic CubeSat platform (coined HyperSat) as a low cost, high cadence hypersonic test platform to solve the facility demand. HyperSat utilizes as standard 12U CubeSat bus, hardened for hypersonic environments with a thermal protective system (TPS). During the aerobraking maneuver, a forward heatshield is used to provide both aerodynamic stability and thermal protection of the CubeSat bus. Inspired by NASA’s ADEPT platform, the heatshield, also called the “umbrella”, is mechanically deployed and locked in place prior to entering the atmosphere. Unlike ADEPT, where the umbrella was stored outside the CubeSat bus, the HyperSat umbrella is stored inside the 12U CubeSat. This was necessitated by standard CubeSat deployer volume and clearance requirements. The goal is to deploy HyperSat using rideshare on a GTO rocket; adhering to standard deployer fitting requirements will save time and money. In this study, the HyperSat team develops a compact deployment mechanism to stow, deploy, and tension the flexible TPS (FPTS) of the umbrella. The system development can be broken into 2 thrusts: (1) FTPS selection, design, and analysis, and (2) deployment mechanism design and structural analysis.