Validation and verification of a nanosatellite passive isolator for pyroshock attenuation

Due to the recent development of the micro-launcher technology, soon nanosatellites are expected to be launched mainly as primary payloads and thus experience intense pyroshock events. This study proposes a novel CubeSat deployment system which alleviates such mechanical shock levels. The passive isolator Sorbothane thin films were integrated within the dynamic envelope of a testpod to evaluate the desired attenuation effects. A metal-to-metal mid-field shock testing (MFST) facility was manufactured to perform in-plane (IP) and out-of-plane (OOP) impacts. The MFST is capable of generating mechanical shock waves up to 10,000g for OOP direction and 5000g for IP excitations. The experiments illustrated that the Sorbothane isolators can attenuate shock levels by 3 dB and the flat adapter (mechanical joint) can attenuate shock levels by 4 dB. The measurements were successfully validated using the positive and the negative shock response spectrum (SRS) approach. In addition to that, the commercially available finite element analysis software ABAQUS was utilized to verify the experimental measurements and simulate the mechanical shock effects using explicit analysis.