Strain Actuated Solar Arrays (SASA)

The team of CU Aerospace and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign propose multifunctional solar arrays, which can be used for attitude control of a spacecraft. The solar arrays are actuated using PZT panels which produce strain. The proposed platform is called Strain Actuated Solar Array (SASA). SASA is intended to be a modular package that can be added to any satellite to provide sub-milli-arcsecond pointing and active jitter dampening. Due to the actuating mechanism and modular design, SASA will be able to scale to be used in a variety of satellite bus (regular satellites to smallsats). This study aims to develop different control algorithms and a high fidelity hardware in the loop platform to test the control algorithms for a scaled SASA prototype. The study would conclude with testing and verifying the control response for the prototype, thereby increasing reliability of the SASA platform promoting it to TRL 4. Subsequent Phases of this project would test the SASA platform in vomit comets and culminate with a test flight on a CubeSat platform to prove flight worthiness (CAPSat).