We are developing a new separation system for small satellites. The system's features are 1) lower shock at separation, 2) lower cost in development, and 3) reusable. Traditional separation systems for large satellite and rockets have pyrotechnics. It is difficult for smaller satellites to stand the explosion shock from pyrotechnics at separation. Pyrotechnics are non-reusable and high cost. Non-pyrotechnics separation systems would be useful. The new separation system consists of hooks and an electric actuator. We proposed the hooks with some teeth instead of a separation nut as connection part of Marman clamp band. The connection is released by an electric actuator. The actuator rolls a cam to make clearance on the hooks. A small motor is used as the actuator. The motor uses gears because torque of the motor itself is too small to roll the cam.. Using a worm gear enable the motor to get higher gear reduction ratio and to roll irreversibly. We tested two types of cam. One is a semicircular cam cut off a part of a disk. The other is an eccentric cam. We designed a Marman clamp band separation system with the hooks and the release device for a micro satellite QSAT (KYUshu SATellite). QSAT is under development by Kyushu University. It is a candidate of piggy-back satellite on Japanese domestic rocket H-IIA in 2008. The dimension of the satellite is approximately 50×50×50 cm3, and the weight is less than 50 kg. The new separation system was designed for a satellite of 50 kg. This paper reports the design, performance, and evaluation of the separation system.
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