Applications of MEMS devices in nanosatellite

摘要

micro-electro-mechanical system (MEMS) device has the advantages of both electronic system and mechanical system. With the development of MEMS devices for satellite, it is possible to establish much lighter and smaller nanosatellites with higher performance and longer lifecyele. The power consumption of MEMS devices is usually much lower than that of traditional devices, which will greatly reduce the consumption of power. For its small size and simple architecture, MEMS devices can be easily integrated together and achieve redundancy. Launched on April 18, 2004, NS - 1 is a nanosatellite for science exploration and MEMS devices test. A mass of science data and images were acquired during its running. NS - 1 weights less than 25 kg. It consists of several MEMS devices, including one miniature inertial measurement unit(MIMU) , three micro complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS)cameras, one sun sensor, three momentum wheels, and one micro magnetic sensor. By applying micro components based on MEMS technology, NS - 1 has made success in the experiments of integrative design, manufacture, and MEMS devices integration. In this paper, some MEMS devices for nanosatellite and picosatellite are introduced, which have been tested on NS -1 nanosatellite or on the ground.