• Current Industrial and Technological Trends in Aerospace
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.97-104
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• 2009

Successful separation of satellites from launch vehicles and release its appendages such as solar arrays and antennas are one of the most important tasks for mission accomplishment during in-orbit maneuver. Especially, specific release devices called NEA(Non-Explosive Actuator) have been widely adopted to perform safe separation and release due to its outstanding performance of low functional shock (below 500g), no contamination and easy handing as opposed to the pyroshock device. In the paper, various kinds of NEA and its history of development are reviewed along with a summary on the domestic research trend.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.38 no.4
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• pp.321-326
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• 2010

The non-explosive release device using jack mechanism is designed and fabricated for the small satellite. As a triggering actuator for the release device, a piezo rotory motor with torque of more than $1.7kgf{\cdot}cm$ is employed to guarantee stable activation. For performance tests of separation device, we conducted release time test, preload test and shock test. The device was operated within 1.172sec and activated stably under load of 45kgf. Maximum shock was measured as 18G that is much less than the pyro-separation device produces. We confirmed the possibility as a satellite separation device through above presented tests.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.37 no.5
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• pp.457-463
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• 2009

This paper describes the development of non-explosive separation(NES) device which can be equipped on a small satellite. It comprises mechanism itself and spring-type shape memory alloy(SMA) actuator. In order to design SMA actuator properly, the necessary actuation force is measured. Based on that result, SMA actuator is designed and fabricated. Finally, SMA actuator and the proposed mechanism are integrated. In order to evaluate performance of the developed NES, we carried out a response time test, preload test and shock level test. In near future, we expect to replace the imported NES device with the developed device.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.38 no.8
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• pp.767-773
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• 2010

This paper describes development of a non-explosive separation device which can be equipped on small satellites. The spur geared micro DC motor, which has high reliability and advantage of price, is adopted as an actuator. The proposed separation device has resettability and it does not need extra jig to reload. In addition, the simple structure makes it easy to fabricate and assemble. To verify the performance of the proposed device, the response time tests, maximum preload tests and maximum shock level tests were performed. Also, through the vibration tests and thermal vacuum tests, feasibility of the proposed separation device was shown in launching and space environments. Therefore, we expect that the proposed separation device can replace the imported separation devices in near future.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aviation and Aeronautics
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.10-15
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• 2011

The separation actuator for the small satellite should fix satellite appendages with high clamping force. After operation, it has to be separated from the satellite body without any damage on satellite system and release the appendages such as a solar panel and an antenna successfully. Therefore, we invent a non-explosive separation actuator for the small satellite which generates low shock and is resettable. In order to confirm performance of the proposed separation actuator, we carried out experiments for separation time, maximum preload for activation, and shock level.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.43 no.7
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• pp.635-640
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• 2015

In this paper, we report a non-explosive separation device for a small satellite which utilize a shape memory alloy actuator. Based on previous research, we try to increase the reliability of the proposed device by changing some components. It enables the proposed device to activate under high preload. Also, we confirm it generates low shock which is main advantage of non-explosive separation device. Finally, vibration test which mimics launching environment and thermal vacuum test which mimics space environment are carried out respectively. After each environment test, we confirm the proposed device is successfully activated. Conclusively, we develop a non-explosive separation device which can activate with low shock under high preload after shock and environment tests(vibration and thermal vacuum tests).

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.41 no.10
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• pp.827-832
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• 2013

Heating wire cutting type separation mechanism has been widely used for cube satellite applications due to its design constraints such as small size of $10cm{\times}10cm{\times}10cm$ and light weight of less than 1kg. In addition, usage of pyro technic device is not allowed for cube satellite application. The conventional methods have some disadvantages of relatively small mechanical constraint force and the system complexity for the multi-deployable systems. In this paper, a separation nut type non-explosive separation mechanism has been proposed and investigated. The effectiveness of the design has been verified through the qualification tests of the mechanism.

• Transactions of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering
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• v.23 no.5
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• pp.401-406
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• 2013

Non-explosive shockless holding and release mechanism for a nano class small satellite application has been proposed and investigated. The great advantages of the mechanism are a much lower shock level and larger constraint force than the conventional mechanism using pyro and the heating wire cutting mechanism which has been generally applied to the cube satellite program. To investigate the effectiveness of the mechanism design, EM mechanism was developed and tested to verify the basic function of the mechanism. The test results indicate that the proposed mechanism is well functioning as the mechanism design intends.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.41 no.2
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• pp.150-155
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• 2013

We present a kevlar rope based Non-Explosive Actuator(NEA) device which has simple structure and is activated by burning Ni-Cr wire. Through performance test, we find it can be operated under various pre-load by simply changing turn number of Ni-Cr wire. It shows release time of 680ms and shock level of 110G under pre-load of 6.0kN. Launching environment and space environment tests are planned to verify performance of the NEA based on European Satellite Agency test manual. Conclusively, we expect the proposed NEA can be applicable to release solar panel and fairing separation.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering Conference
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• 2013.04a
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• pp.520-521
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• 2013