DEVELOPMENT OF SELENE SMALL SATELLITE SYSTEMS AND THEIR APPLICATIONS FOR SELENODESY

摘要

Two small sub-satellites: Relay Satellite (Rstar) and VLBI Radio Satellite (Vstar), which are separated from SELENE Main Orbiter, will execute global mapping of the lunar gravity field. These sub-satellites are requested to be simple structured, light weighted, and optimized for the selenodesy mission. We have, therefore, developed a low-mass type release mechanism which consists of two rings connected with 24 stretching bow springs. Properties of the mechanism have been confirmed by the ground tests and displayed on orbit using μ-Lab Sat. We have also examined the four-way signal acquiring process by the compatibility tests at the ground station, which shows the enough performances to track two moving links between the lunar orbits.