Ground simulation tests of spinning deployment dynamics of a solar sail

The spinning deployment of solar sails is a new space technique, which utilizes the centrifugal force of spinning to deploy the sail membranes stowed in a spiral folding status and to sustain the configuration of fully deployed membranes. This technique, hence, has the advantages of light weight and low energy consumption because it does not need any extra supportive structure. Sufficient ground simulation tests for the spinning deployment dynamics and control of a solar sail are significantly important for this technique before it is tested on orbit and applied to any space missions. This paper presents how to design and realize the ground simulation test for spinning deployment dynamics of a solar sail model, including deployment and control devices, as well as several kinds of sail membranes. The paper also presents the ground simulation tests of spinning deployment of a solar sail model either under the normal atmospheric pressure or in a vacuum chamber. Repeated ground simulation tests verify the approach to deploy the sail membranes fully and smoothly. The photos taken by two high-speed cameras, from horizontal and vertically directions respectively, enable one to observe the spinning deployment process and analyze both the length of deployed membranes with respective to time and the dynamic response of membranes in the second deployment stage via digital image processing. A simplified dynamic model is established to explain the sever out-of-plane vibration observed in the second stage of deployment.