Testing Large Ultra-Lightweight Spacecraft

Testing Large Ultra-lightweight Spacecraft documents the novel testing approaches that are unique to large ultra-lightweight space platforms. A follow-on volume to Gossamer Spacecraft: Membrane and Inflatable Structures Technology for Space Applications (AIAA, 2001) and Recent Advances in Gossamer Spacecraft (AIAA, 2006), it addresses continued maturation in the technology as witnessed by the following factors: Deploying larger space platforms from smaller packed volumes, with fewer moving parts and more strain energy enforcements. Deployment articulations are becoming more complex, with more degrees of freedom. Precision space structures are growing larger, forcing flight qualification at the sub-scale level. Testing Large Ultra-lightweight Spacecraft provides the theory, and especially the practice, of testing large, ultra-lightweight spacecraft for designers, testers, and technology managers. It serves as a single repository for the unique approaches taken in validating such structures on the ground and in space.