28/08/2018 How can a rocket deploy several satellites?

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3 Answers

Griffin Jourda, Currently in the process of designing a suborbital rocket

Answered Mar 30, 2017

A rocket can deploy multiple satellites by using an adapter, or by using canisters

like those on cubesats. These small canisters can sit underneath the main
satellite and will deploy cubesats once the main payload is far enough from the
rocket.

The other method is when smaller satellites are clustered around one large
satellite and are attached to the payload adapter, or sit directly underneath it
like in this image from Arianespace:

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Question Stats

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Last Asked Feb 16, 2017
Edits

Here is a depiction of cubesat boxes in the interstage of the American SLS:

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28/08/2018 How can a rocket deploy several satellites? - Quora

The ISRO was able to launch the 100 satellites by using “quad packs” of cubesats,
25 of them carrying four satellites each:

When the satellites deployed, they deployed one after another without the
rocket changing velocity, so they were all in the same orbit. However, the
engineers that designed the satellites sent commands to each one telling them
to rotate a little bit so that their solar panels are perpendicular to the direction
of. This means that each satellite will slow down a tiny bit due to the tiny
atmosphere pushing against their solar panels, which are acting as essentially
tiny drag chutes. Over time, each satellite will spread out, no fuel needed!

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Karthik Venkatesh, Rocket and Space Propulsion Engineer

Answered Feb 16, 2017

First, let’s see what was inside the fairing of the PSLV rocket.

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28/08/2018 How can a rocket deploy several satellites? - Quora

Credits: ISIS - Innovative Solutions in Space

Satellites

Cartosat-2D - 730 kg
INS-1A - 8.4 kg
INS-1B - 9.7 kg
Nayif-1 CubeSats - 1.1 kg
Al Farabi-1 - 1.7 kg
PEASSS - 3 kg
BGUSat - 4.3 kg
DIDO-2 - 3.2 kg
Doves (Flock 3p) - 4.7 x 88
LEMUR Nano - 4.6 kg x 8

The 104 small satellites were:

88 x Dove (US), 8 x Lemur (US), 1 x BGUSat (IL), 1 x PEASSS (NL), 1 x DIDO-2

(CH), 1 x Al-Farabi-1 (KZ), 1 x Nayif-1 (UAE).

The 88 Doves, 8 Lemurs, BGUSat, DIDO-2, PEASSS were all 3U CubeSats. A

typical 3U CubeSat looks like this:

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28/08/2018 How can a rocket deploy several satellites? - Quora

It is 10 cm X 10 cm X 10 cm.

For the PSLC C-37 launch, the Cartosat-2D is the main payload. The rest of the
satellites do something called the ‘piggy-back’ ride. Since the CubeSats have
limited manoeuvrability and since they are essentially ‘cheap satellites’, they
have to stick to the orbit that the launcher can provide.

16 mins and 48 seconds after the launch, the PSLV fourth stage carrying the
payload first inserted the primary payload Cartosat-2D at nearly a 501 km orbit.
Then, the insertion of INS-1A and INS-1B followed.

The insertion of the satellites occurs continuously with a specific interval. The
PSLV rocket provides for CubeSat deploy pods to be placed on it such that the
satellites are ejected with a precise force and in nominally varying directions.
This is done in order to avoid collisions.

To do this, either the fourth stage gimbals with a small margin or the pods eject
the satellites with a small angle. To picture this, imagine a person watering the
plants with a hose. He switches the direction back-and-forth to spread the water.

So the key is:

Eject satellites at certain intervals

Eject them at varying angles

However, the CubeSats are constrained to be in the orbit which the launcher
wishes to provide since they are not the primary payload. By design, Cubesats
are secondary payloads and the companies do not push hard for drastically
different orbits, although they do have some requirements.

In fact, the Cubesat designers have to trade off the orbit and performance based
on the availability of the launch provider. If the launch provider’s primary
payload has drastically different orbit, the only option is to choose another
provider. Otherwise, it isn’t economical anymore.

Here is the video explaining how the small satellites were inserted: PSLV-C37
deploys 88 Planet cubesats

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Sophia de Tricht, Launch Licensure Consultant & Founding Partner, Pleiades Related Questions
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When a rocket taking a satellite into orbit

explodes, who pays for the satellite?

How difficult is rocket science?

What microprocessor does ISRO use in their

rockets, satellites, etc?

Why do several types of modern rockets not use

fins?

Who invented the first satellite and why?

Why are rockets so expensive?

Why did the first stage of the BFR use 42 medium-

sized engines, while the second stage use 4 large

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28/08/2018 How can a rocket deploy several satellites? - Quora
engines?

 Ask New Question

Each of those large circular ports is an attachment point upon which a small
satellite can be, well, attached. Like so

Now, I imagine these would be stackable, so you could set one fully loaded ESPA
on top of another and so on and so on thus adding up on a ride share. I mean,
$64,000,000 stings the wallet, but if you split it 25 ways (primary and
secondary), it hurts a little less.

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