Structural Design and Analysis of Pico-class Satellite named STEP Cube Lab

Structural Design and Analysis of Pico-class Satellite named STEP Cube Lab

The STEP Cube Lab (Cube Laboratory for Space Technology Experimental Projects) is a 1U cube satellite developed by the Space Technology Synthesis Laboratory of Chosun University to be launched in 2015. Its mission objective is twofold: to determine which of the fundamental space technologies researched at domestic universities, will be potential candidates for use in future space missions and to verify the effectiveness of the technologies by investigating mission data obtained from on-orbit operation of the cube satellite. In this paper, a structural design concept based on the 1U standard to achieve the mission objective is introduced. The validity of the design has been demonstrated by quasi-static analysis and modal analysis. In addition, a non-explosive separation device triggered by burn wire heating, which is one of the main mission payloads is introduced.