This study is about asymmetric deployment of membrane deployment structure different in the thickness. A spin type membrane deployment structure is solar sail. A spin type solar power sail IKAROS is the spacecraft which launched in 2010 by JAXA and has 14-meter-square sail. IKAROS is connected to four trapezoidal membranes called "Petal". A solar power sail is attached to the thin film solar cell. Bending stiffness and compression stiffness of the point where thin film solar cell is attached cannot be ignored As a result of the success of IKAROS, JAXA is planning to next solar sail mission. The deployment sequence of IKAROS consists of 2 stages which are 1~(st) stage deployment is performed statically and 2~(nd) stage deployment is performed dynamically. Asymmetric deployment is a phenomenon which deploys one petal greatly delayed, which is called significant asymmetric deployment in this study. This asymmetric deployment could jeopardize the success of future solar sail mission. If asymmetry occurs in the deployment, it could confuse the balance of the spacecraft, and the membrane could wrap around the main body. In this study, the cause of significant asymmetric deployment is considered by the difference of a bending stiffness and a compressive stiffness due to the thickness difference between the thin-film solar cell and the base film. Spin deployment experiments are conducted using a test model of square shaped solar sail in a vacuum chamber. This experiment shed light on the deployment behavior which happens due to differences in membrane thickness. Also numerical simulation is conducted to set the bending stiffness and compressive stiffness as a parameter, and is compared with the behavior of the experiment. In this study, a significant asymmetric deployment of spin type solar power sail is investigated and the result is shown.
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