Quasistatic Release Mechanism

Heliospace is developing the next generation of release mechanisms that generate "nearzero" shock upon actuation. When integrated into a deployment assembly, the Quasi-Static Release Mechanism'™ (QSRM"™) can be utilized for a multitude of applications, including state-of-the-art optical systems, avionics, sensors, or any application where mitigating shock is of paramount importance. The proposed release mechanism has several key advantages: (1) Relative to the current state-of-the art, development testing has demonstrated a two order of magnitude reduction in exported shock during actuation, as described in Section 2.2; (2) The unit's field reset-ability helps mitigate project cost and schedule risk by enabling technicians to reset deployables in a matter of hours; (3) Verification and Validation activities are significantly improved as shock becomes less of a design driver for qualification of associated hardware. Phase 2 funding will be used to increase the TRL of the Quasi-Static Release Mechanism from TRL 4 to TRL 6 . Broadly speaking, this will be achieved by fabricating a fully integrated system model and conducting testing in dynamics and thermal vacuum environments, among others. Qualification testing will be conducted utilizing the guidelines for environmental testing in General Environmental Verification Standards, GSFC-STD-7000B (GEVS). In addition, Heliospace will scale the device for a range of applications. The near-term objective is to develop a unit capable of releasing a 25kN and 10kN preload as well as the 2kN unit. Heliospace will also be conducting further research and development on state-of-the-art shape memory alloys that will increase the temperature range in which the unit can be operated from the current 90C up to ~140C. From a non-technical standpoint. Target markets are government and commercial space missions requiring deployment of both large- and small-scale deployable structures, mechanisms, and sensors.