Development and Feasibility Assessment of a Sequential Antenna Deployment System Based on Fiber-Reinforced Shape Memory Polymer Composites

With the growing demand for reliable, low-impact deployment systems in small satellite missions, this work introduces an antenna deployment mechanism using fiber-reinforced shape memory polymer composites (SMPC). The mechanism utilized thermally activated SMPCs for stowage and release, configured with different glass transition temperatures (<i>T_g</i>), tuned through the addition of poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG-600), for sequential actuation. The deployment mechanism consisted of three SMPC components with varying PEG concentrations: SMPC-P (0 wt%), SMPC-5 (5 wt%), and SMPC-10 (10 wt%). For component design, three bending angle configurations (BAC) of 20°, 30°, and 40° were tested. The samples exhibited the highest fixity ratio (93.58%, 95.76%, and 96.52% for SMPC-P, SMPC-5, and SMPC-10, respectively) when conformed to the 20° BAC. All samples achieved full recovery within 2 min, with PEG-incorporated composites exhibiting more uniform behavior across cycles, while recovery rates varied by material and BAC. Deployment testing confirmed the antenna was released successfully across all BACs. The 20° BAC exhibited the fastest response, completing deployment 24 s and 30 s ahead of the 30° and 40° BACs, respectively. The proposed mechanism exhibits promising potential for integration in future CubeSat missions. However, further testing under simulated space conditions is necessary to comprehensively assess and validate its performance.