The ultra-light deployment mechanism (UDM) is based on three carbon fibre reinforced plastics (CFRP) curved tape springs made of carbon fibre / cyanate ester prepregs. In the frame of the activity its space application suitability for the deployment of solid reflector antenna sections was investigated. A projected diameter of the full reflector of 4 m to 7 m and specific mass in the order of magnitude of 2.6 kg/m~2 was focused for requirement derivation. Extensive verification tests including health checks, environmental and functional tests were carried out with an engineering model to enable representative characterizing of the UDM unit. This paper presents the design and a technical description of the UDM as well as a summary of achieved development status with respect to test results and possible design improvements.
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