Construction of a CubeSat Using Additive Manufacturing

This paper examines the use of additive manufacturing and the composite SLS material Windform XT to build a 2U CubeSat with an integrated Micro-Electro-Mechanical System (MEMS) propulsion for space flight. The flight of this satellite is intended to examine and test the use of additive manufacturing utilizing Windform XT to produced CubeSat's, as well as certifying a warm gas propulsion subsystems with a magnetic stabilization for CubeSat orbital altitude adjustment. The RAMPART project uses additive manufacturing techniques to build the satellite structures, propellant tanks, printed circuit board cages, solar panel frames, antenna deployment mechanisms, etc. at a fraction of the time of current methods. Materials developed by CRP Technology for use in Formula 1 and NASCAR, with improved mechanical and thermal properties are being adapted for use in space. This paper describes the use of these techniques to design and build a 2U CubeSat. The satellite will measure incident energetic particle flux, together with the experiments to measure the performance of the composite material Windform XT being used as the satellite structure.