Space mechanics centre

The key fields of Industrial Centre for Large-Sized Foldable Mechanical Structures (IC LFMS) activity are development, testing and manufacturing of large-sized structures for satellites.

Among such structures are onboard antennas and solar array wings. IC LFMS specialists also engineer drive units responsible for satellite mechanical systems deployment in the orbit, antennas accurate positioning and pointing towards service areas on the ground, as well as solar arrays orientation to the Sun.

Centre’s high-tech developments are targeted for solution of top-priority tasks in satellite industry. Large satellite-borne reflectors help achieving high power performance in telecommunication links. Solar array dimensions determine the capabilities of onboard electric power subsystems, herewith, solar array wings must remain compactly stowed during satellite transportation and launch, and must be guaranteed to successfully unfold as the satellite reaches the orbit.

Over 20 years of the Centre’s existence, large-sized unfoldable antenna reflectors were developed and qualified. Six of them are being successfully operated onboard LOUTCH-5A, LOUTCH-5B & LOUTCH-5V data relay satellites.

IC LFMS engineers developed a transformable solar array wing structure employing unification-focused solutions enabling scaling solar arrays by size up to the maximum overall area of 112 square metres. This groundwork can be useful for future high power satellites carrying large payloads.

For the purposes of large-sized foldable mechanical structures engineering, RESHETNEV company has amassed application-specific manufacturing & test capabilities including those dedicated to materials science.

“The technology readiness level of projects in this area has made it possible to elevate the content of composite structures in RESHETNEV’s satellites to 70 %, and to carry out R&D programmes for the needs of other space industry enterprises”, – the Director of IC LFMS Fyodor Sinkovskiy explains.

Increasing the share of composite materials helped improve performances and reduce mass of satellite structure elements.

The Industrial Centre’s products are in high demand with space industry companies. Among major customers, there are JSC NPO LAVOCHKIN, RSC ENERGIA, JSC RUSSIAN SPACE SYSTEMS, JSC VNIIEM corp., JSC ARSENAL RESEARCH BUREAU, JSC NPOMASH.

IC LFMS developments are being successfully used onboard Russian weather satellites ELEKTRO-L & ARKTIKA-M, space observatories SPEKTR-R & SPEKTR-RG. JSC has manufactured drive units for LUNA-RESURS-1 lunar orbiter and antenna subsystems for new Earth observation satellites.

For the new MILLIMETRON space observatory, RESHETNEV company is building a space telescope. Its 10-metre wide antenna shall serve as the main instrument capturing signals of deep space objects.