Test Approach for the Mechanical Qualification of a Micro-Satellite Structure and Subsystems

Small satellites have been around since the dawn of the Space Age. Small, low cost satellites used to be the exclusive domain of scientific and amateur groups. Micro-Satellites fall into the 10–100 Kg category of Small Satellites. They are prone to single point failure and hence utmost care must be taken to design them with low safety factors. This paper gives the preliminary design procedure for a Micro-Satellite with subsystems. Here a Micro-Satellite has been modeled in CATIA and has been studied using ANSYS Finite Element Method codes. Initially the satellite was modeled for the static loads to be carried and after several iterations the optimized model to take dynamic loads with acceptable safety factor was obtained The Finite Element Model results have been validated with experimental results.