The Boom Design of the De-Orbit Sail Satellite

DE-ORBIT SAIL is a cubesat based drag sail for the de-orbiting of satellites in a low earth orbit. It is scheduled for launch in late 2014 and will deploy a 25m² sail supported by deployable carbon fiber booms designed and manufactured by DLR. This boom possesses a closed cross-section formed by two omega-shaped half-shells. Due to this cross-sectional design the boom features a high torsional stiffness. Thereby a high bending strength is achieved compared to other boom concepts for similar applications as the boom is less sensitive to flexural torsional buckling. The boom concept selection is based on a detailed analysis of three types of deployable booms which differ in their cross-sectional design. From this analysis the double-omega boom was determined as most suited for DE-ORBIT SAIL. For the manufacturing of the booms a novel method is used where the booms are manufactured in an integral way in one piece.