Abstract
Deployable structures provide many advantages for lightweight and compact space applications. One of the greatest challenges in using flexible deployable structures for high-precision applications is achieving sufficient positional accuracy, including high dimensional stability. Composite material properties feature a large number of uncertainties, compromising the predictability of the dimensional stability of the structure. The harsh thermal environment of LEO can cause excessive distortions for some high precision applications, including Earth obsevation optics. In this paper, a deployable Cassegrain telescope for nano-satellites is presented. The design is based on six bistable composite booms to separate the mirrors, with a stowed volume of four CubeSat units. A sensitivity analysis based on the Morris method is carried out to assess the most influential CFRP parameters on the dimensional stability, discarding those with negligible effect. An experimental setup for a 3 degree of freedom interferometer is proposed, with the goal of determining relative tilts as well as displacements from the interferogram recorded on the detector.