Nanosatellites

18 I-4bDeployment Systems

A. Rüstem Aslan¹, Cesar Bernal², and Jordi Puig-Suari³

¹Astronautical Engineering Department, Istanbul Technical University, Turkey

²ISIS—Innovative Solutions In Space B.V., Delft, The Netherlands

³Cal Poly, Aerospace Engineering Department, San Luis Obispo, USA

18.1 Introduction

The present chapter introduces various nanosatellite deployment systems. Nanosatellites are generally designed and developed based on the CubeSat standard and usually launched using a picosatellite orbital deployer (POD), a special container originally called “poly picosatellite orbital deployer (P-POD).” The POD, which is also an integral part of the CubeSat design specification, is fully tested and qualified to survive the launch loads exerted by launch vehicles (LVs). Since nanosatellites are, till now, launched as secondary payloads together with a main spacecraft, they should not endanger the success of the main spacecraft and the rocket. The POD is the interface between the nanosatellite and the launch vehicle. It may be compared to the large containers used to carry various goods on ships. Currently, there are many new nanosatellite deployers (also called dispensers) that can accommodate various sizes (CubeSat form factors) of nanosatellites, multiple of them, or swarms of them. Most PODs fully enclose the nanosatellite while some do not. The PODs are the enabling technology for the nanosatellites, although they may impose certain constraints on their design, particularly ...