Quasistatic Release Mechanism

Heliospace has developed a unique release mechanism that exports near-zero shock during actuation and can be utilized for the purposes of deploying state of the art observatory systems and subsystems. Furthermore, the proposed release mechanism is designed to be field resettable which enables a customer to avoid expensive and time consuming off site reset and refurbish apparent with non-field resettable devices. This capability enables the devices to avoid costly and risk inducing test-as-you-fly waivers that are typically required with one shot release mechanisms and improves the flow of Integration and Test phases of a project. The release device can be scaled to meet needs from small scale CubeSat applications all the way up to flag ship space telescopes. The proposed release device has the potential to provide a unique capability by enabling the design and deployment of precision hardware for the entirety of the optical chain. It diversifies the current release mechanism market that is dominated domestically by two manufactures. Finally. it increases the number of options available to engineers to achieve large- and small-scale deployable structures not achievable with current technologies.

Heliospace's Quasistatic release mechanism has application to NASA Artemis and NASA Flagship Observatories. Both of which require more novel packaging techniques and deployable systems to fit within current and future launch vehicle payload fairing volume constraints. Webb utilized 50 major deployables and 178 release mechanisms to fit its 6.5m primary mirror inside the 4.6m wide Ariane V fairing. Those single point failure release mechanisms were a substantial driver of cost, schedule, and technical risk. Looking to the future, the Habitable Worlds Observatory’s (HWO), which is currently undergoing architectural trades, will undoubtedly perform similarly complex deployment as Webb. One limiting factor to these complex packaging architectures is the amount of shock imparted into sensitive hardware. Engineers cannot restrain optically precise hardware directly to release mechanisms because the best-in-class release devices still export a significant shock spectrum that would risk performance degradation. Our Quasistatic Release Mechanism innovation willprovide a minimal to no shock release, which would entirely eliminate shock constraints from being a discriminating factor in the HWO architectural and design trades. The proposed innovation also has potential to improve resetability capabilities relative to the marketing leading low shock release devices, which would help NASA reduce cost and schedule. The relatively simple design would mitigate the technical risk, required analysis and engineering costs associated with current low shock solutions. In short, our proposed Quasistatic Release Mechanism innovation would provide a shock-free HDRM capability currently not provided by the market that would help enable NASA to utilize novel packaging techniques for more efficient deployable systems to achieve large apertures for space telescopes of the future. Space missions requiring both large and small scale deployable structures, mechanisms, and sensors will benefit from the proposed system development. While NASA is pushing the state of the art in large apertures and optical sensitivity, the commercial market is pushing the state of the art in miniaturization and cost. Our proposed quasistatic release mechanism (QRM) innovation lends itself very well to the commercial market because it is both scalable, simple, and 100% resettable. The QRM can be sized to address any commercial application market need. And then it can be standardized based on needed fastener sizes to drive down costs. Because of its simplicity and lack of consumable parts, the associated cost burden for each unit has potential to be lower than current HDRM solutions. We envision commercial CubeSat constellations being one major focus, wherever larger antennas are needed to increase communication capability. We also envision use on other mission classes, ranging from Sounding Rockets to spacecraft to lunar landers, where increased sensitivity of deployed instrumentation is beyond the current state of the art. In short, our proposed quasistatic release mechanism innovation will enable commercial space to launch more sensitive payloads in a smaller size with less cost than the current HDRM market capabilities enable.

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