Structural Design and Verification of Weight Reduction for 12U Cube Satellite

Overview

The development of CubeSats has recently accelerated due to their cost-effectiveness compared to traditional satellites. To optimize the economic utilization of CubeSats, minimizing overall weight is essential, while also meeting critical constraints such as structural stiffness. In this project, we propose a lightweight 12U CubeSat structure that meets both stiffness and design requirements. To achieve this, we conducted structural analyses using ANSYS, verifying that the modal and random vibration analyses adhered to the standards outlined in NASA-GSFC-STD-7000A. As a result, we achieved a 34% weight reduction compared to the original design, culminating in the successful fabrication of the final structure.

Our 12U Cubesat Strucuture

• This project was carried out over the course of a year in collaboration with NARA SPACE and contributed to the development of BUSANSAT-A.
• Additionally, our team received third place among over 90+ teams in the 2020 PNU CAPSTONE DESIGN Poster session (Ahn & Jeong, 2020).