Structural Design of Micro-Satellite for ODIE

The Orbiting Drag-free International Explorer (ODIE) is a technology demonstration of the proposed Orbiting Medium Explorer for Gravitational Astrophysics (OMEGA) mission in gravitational wave detection. The OMEGA mission requires the motion of the spacecraft to be stabilized around a proof mass reference such that spurious acceleration on the proof mass is reduced to below 10(-15) m/s2/Hz(1/2). ODIE will verify the feasibility of using the Capacitative and Electrostatic Sensitive Accelerometer Reference accelerometers (CAESAR) and the Field Effect Electric Propulsion (FEEP) thrusters to provide the desired drag-free performance necessary for gravitational wave experiments. This paper will discuss the structural aspects of the design of the micro-satellite, ODIE.