China News Agency, Beijing, August 17 (Guo Chaokai, Chen Jing, Yang Miaoyuan) The reporter learned from China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation on the 17th that recently, the Group's Second Academy Space Engineering Company independently developed a new inflatable unfolding solar wing ground prototype assembly and integration. The ground folding and unfolding test was a complete success. The new solar wing has the characteristics of light weight and high compression ratio, which can reduce the weight of the entire star, laying the foundation for the realization of "multiple stars with one arrow".
The solar wing is the power supply equipment of the spacecraft and the "energy source" for the survival of the spacecraft. It is directly related to the effective operation of the satellite in orbit. As we all know, the larger the area of the solar wing, the more energy it provides for the satellite. However, limited by factors such as the effective space and carrying capacity of the vehicle, the traditional spacecraft solar wing encounters a dilemma in meeting performance requirements and launch constraints.
The new inflatable and deployable solar wing independently developed by Space Engineering Corporation has opened up a new way to effectively solve this problem. It is reported that due to the inflatable deployment technology, the weight of this new type of solar wing is reduced by 50% when the deployment area and power are the same as the traditional solar wing, which not only meets the energy supply required by the satellite, but also effectively reduces the overall star The weight is also more conducive to the launch of "multiple stars with one arrow".
With the vigorous development of satellite Internet constellations, the demand for "multiple satellites with one arrow" has also attracted more attention. At the beginning of 2019, the space engineering company jumped out of the fixed thinking of traditional solar wing development and tried to use space flexible inflatable drive technology to create a new type of solar wing. The project team started from scratch, with a large amount of research data, and after dozens of program demonstrations and discussions, the technical plan for the inflatable solar wing was proposed, and breakthroughs were made in many key technologies such as rigid-flexible connection and sealing, flexible dynamic simulation technology, etc. Sexual progress.
After nearly a year of research, the space engineering company has successfully completed the development of a 10-square-meter inflatable and unfolding solar wing principle prototype, and has successively carried out ground folding and compaction mechanics tests, space environmental adaptability and other ground tests, which effectively verified the inflatable deployment. The feasibility of solar wings. At present, the new solar wing has been developed for engineering series products and applied to model tasks, and the future can be expected. (Finish)