LARGE “FUROSHIKI” NET EXTENSION IN SPACE – SOUNDING ROCKET EXPERIMENT RESULTS

University of Tokyo and Kobe University conducted a sounding rocket experiment to deploy large “Furoshiki” net in space, which is a promising candidate for the future large antenna or solar power satellites. The experimental system consisting of mother and three daughter satellites as well as a folded net was separated from S-310 sounding rocket of JAXA/ISAS at the altitude of 110km, where the daughter satellites, after separated from mother satellite with 1.2 m/s velocity, deployed a large net of 14m-sized triangle. The deployment was quire successful without any tangling and the dynamics during deployment has been captured by cameras, INS and radar distance measurement system. Retro-directive antenna micro wave transmission experiment using 4 antennae on the bottom of satellites were conducted also successfully.