The Air Force Research Laboratory-Space Vehicles Directorate (AFRL) has been actively developing low shock, non-pyrotechnic spacecraft release and deployment devices to mitigate problems with traditional pyrotechnic devices. Specifically, pyrotechnic devices produce high shock, contamination, and have costly handling requirements due to their hazardous nature. AFRL has provided funding to Lockheed Martin Astronautics and Starsys Research Corporation for development and test of several shape memory alloy (SMA) actuated release devices. Through both ground testing and on-orbit performance, these devices have been shown to reduce shock by at least an order of magnitude, while remaining comparable in size and mass to pyrotechnic devices. Flight heritage includes the U.S. Air Force MightySat I Shape Memory Alloy Release Device (SMARD) experiment that successfully fired and tested two SMA devices. A discussion of low-shock technology, current projects, and future potential is presented along with on-orbit test results.


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    Title :

    Overview of Spacecraft Deployment and Release Devices Efforts at the Air Force Research Laboratory


    Contributors:

    Conference:

    Seventh International Conference and Exposition on Engineering, Construction, Operations, and Business in Space ; 2000 ; Albuquerque, New Mexico, United States


    Published in:

    Space 2000 ; 312-318


    Publication date :

    2000-02-18




    Type of media :

    Conference paper


    Type of material :

    Electronic Resource


    Language :

    English




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