ETD

• CubeSat
• FEM analyses
• Honeycomb material
• Launcher environment
• Sandwich structure
• Space environment
• Spacecraft solar panels

This thesis addresses the preliminary design of deployable solar panels for a CubeSat mission. The mechanical loads associated with the launch environment are assessed and used to perform structural analyses of the panels. The space environment of a low Earth Sun-synchronous orbit is examined and considered in the trade-off process for the selection of the composite material for the structure. A commercial off-the-shelf deployment system is identified, and its mechanical constraints are modelled and applied to the solar panel to reproduce realistic boundary conditions. Finally, static and modal FEM analyses of the preliminary solar panel design are performed using ANSYS.