Structural Design and Verification of Aeronomy Study Satellite ALE-1

Abstract

ALE-1 is a collaborative microsatellite project between ALE Co., Ltd. and Tohoku University. The mission objective of ALE-1 is to perform an aeronomy study by generating artificial meteors. Due to the uniqueness of the mission and an extremely limited development time, the project posed many challenges in the structural subsystem point of view. To cope with this, several key design concepts were proposed in the preliminary design phase. Moreover, ALE-1 is the first microsatellite developed by Space Robotics Laboratory (SRL) of Tohoku University to be launched by JAXA Epsilon rocket. Being a secondary payload of this rideshare, ALE-1 was launched in the sideway configuration. This is an unconventional way of launching microsatellite and is necessary to consider in the design process. Verification of the structural design of ALE-1 was also conducted by software simulation and environmental tests. Finite element method was implemented in the design process. Environmental test such as shock test, vibration test, and mass property test were also conducted to verify the launch survivability of the satellite structure. This paper aims to use ALE-1 as a demonstration of a microsatellite development with unique mission for Epsilon rocket in the structural subsystem point of view.