Carbon fiber reinforced polymers (CFRPs) offer exceptional properties that make them highly relevant in the aerospace industry, such as high thermal conductivity and an outstanding strength‐to‐weight ratio. Advances in additive manufacturing have expanded the aerospace applications of CFRPs, even allowing for in‐space fabrication of complex structures. Understanding the stability of CFRPs in the harsh conditions of low Earth orbit (LEO) is crucial. LEO exposes materials to extreme environmental factors, such as vacuum, radiation, atomic oxygen, and temperature fluctuations, which can accelerate degradation. To investigate the space‐environment effect on material, changes in properties of 3D‐printed CFRPs are compared with CFRPs made through forging and conventional compression molding. Surface analyses examine morphological, chemical, and matrix composition changes, along with an evaluation of mechanical integrity. Remarkably, the naked 3D printed CFRPs withstood 8 months of LEO exposure similar to the compression molded CFRP samples, with changes in chemical properties limited to the sample's outer surface. Further, despite no protective coatings are used, limited surface erosion and no variation in mechanical strength are observed. These results provide relevant information for the development and deployment of novel 3D printed CFRPs materials for a wide spectrum of terrestrial and space applications.
S-Band Low Earth Orbit Reconfigurable Small Satellite System for Space Environment Sensing
The applications of additive manufacturing (AM) techniques have rapidly increased in industry sectors in recent years. In combination with the ever-increasing number of new constellations of communications satellites in Low-Earth Orbit (LEO), the innovative technology presents promising qualities for space industry applications, particularly for radio frequency (RF) systems. This paper presents a S-band telemetry and data backup system for space radiation experiments for LEO to analyze the effects of long-term exposure of materials to the harsh space environment. The design presented in this paper is based on Commercial Off-The-Shelf (COTS) components, presenting approximately an average and peak power consumption of 0.8 W, and 1 W, respectively, while transmitting the peak configurable RF output power of 20 dBm. Including an AM radiation shielding, the system can be accommodated in 76 mm x 76 mm x 46 mm. Its modular design makes this system fully configurable, allowing a wide variety of applications. In this work, all the
on-board measurements are backed up on an on-board memory card with error correction capabilities, as well as downlinked, enabling the possibility to monitor the total absorbed radiation during the experiment, as well as the communications link impact of the degradation of the on-board RF materials and circuit components. The system can be commanded while in orbit to reconfigure on-board sensor measurements and transceiver parameters.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1944599
- NSF-PAR ID:
- 10215624
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- 2021 IEEE Space Hardware and Radio Conference (SHaRC2021)
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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