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Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics

How to hog tie the MinXSS CubeSat in 30 seconds

February 16, 2017

Yesterday, James Mason decided to record the process of stowing the solar arrays and antenna on the MinXSS-2 spacecraft. The video has been posted on youtube; it first compresses the entire process down to 30 seconds so you can see it all quickly. It then jumps back and James describes what he’s doing as he does it, pointing out some of the important design features that ensure the system can survive the rocket launch. The deployments have been tested dozens of times in a variety of environmental and spacecraft conditions and so far it has never failed for MinXSS-1 or -2. Of course, it’s also been proven to work in the real deal with MinXSS-1, which has now been operating in space for 9 months.