Orbital Experiment of Tether Deployment Nano System of Kagawa Satellite KUKAI

摘要

The Kagawa Satellite KUKAI was developed in Kagawa University and launched by the H-IIA rocket on January 23, 2009. The primary objective of KUKAI is technical verification of a tethered space robot, which is connected to a mother spacecraft through a tether. The tethered space robot is a new type of space robot system different significantly from the Tethered Satellite System (TSS). The tether is to be extended at a relatively short distance, and we do not envision either gravity force or centrifugal force to be an influence on the tether extension. This paper especially focuses on the tether deployment system of KUKAI, which deploys the tether for short distance. Orbital experiment verified and evaluated the developed system.