releasing themarman clampandthereby, allowing thespringloadedpushplatetoejectthesatellite intoorbit. Duringtheinvestigation connected withtheonorbitdebrisissue,themotionofthemarman clamp assembly wasstudiedusingvideorecorded at1000framespersecond. Whenviewedataplayback rateofoneframepersecond, thisvideorevealed thatthemarman clampassembly wouldseparate, reachtheendoftravel,rebound backandre-contact theseparation planebeforethesatellite could bedeployed. Anyre-contact withthesatellite priortobeingfullydeployed couldresultinahazardous "tip-off'andmission-compromising situation. Itwasalsoapparent thatthebasicconfiguration ofthe assembly hadatendency toexacerbate separation planere-contact. Designimprovements were required toeliminate thehazardous condition andimprove overallsystemreliability. Marman ClampDesignImprovement DesignRequirements Thefollowing goalswereestablished toguidethedesignimprovement effort: 1.Eliminate there-contact ofthemarman bandassembly withthesatellite and/orseparation plane, thus,avoiding asafetyhazard. 2.Prevent anychange tothemarman bandclamping loadpath,whichwouldinvalidate previous analysis, andtesting. 3.Improvements mustberetrofittable andcompatible withboththeHESandPES. Tomeetthedesignrequirements, itwasnecessary todoamoreindepthstudyofthehigh-speed videoandattempttoisolateproblem areasintheexisting design.Several pointswereidentified: 1.Whenreleased themarman clampassembly reacted inaveryuncontrolled andundesirable manner. 2.Theboltcutterassemblies comprised alargeportionoftheoverallmassofthemarman clamp assembly. Theirmethodofattachment tooneendofeachclampinhibited thefreemotionofthe bandasitexpanded ina"tailwagging thedog"fashion. Thecutterassembly immediately pivotedabouttheendoftheclampbumping andslapping theseparation planeduringrelease. Thedesignoftheclampusedtosecuretheboltcutterwasinadequate andinneedof improvement. 3.Theinterconnect leafspringswhichjoinedthetwomarman clamps, weredetermined tohavelittle effectinbandseparation compared tothestrainenergyinthebandduetotheboltpreload. The leafsprings, infact,contributed totherebound effectsofthebandduetotheirstoredenergy whenfullyexpanded attheendoftravel. 4.Thestopsthatthemarman clampassembly cometorestonafterseparation werelocatedsuch thattheywoulddirecttherebounded assembly backtowardtheseparation plane.Amorerobust designwasneededtoaccommodate impactloading. 5.Theretaining springsthatsecurethemarman clampassembly afterseparation, ifredesigned, couldactas"pull-down" springsandcontribute tothecontrolling ofbandmotion. DesiqnTrade-offs Basedonthedesignrequirements andtheexisting hardware configuration anddeficiencies, design approach trade-offs wereperformed. Twoapproaches wereconsidered: 1.Themoreconventional methodformarman bandapplications, whichwouldinvolveadapting the ejection systems toincorporate a"bandcatcher". 2.Thehardware specific approach inwhichaseriesofdesign improvements totheexisting hardware isusedtomeettherequirements. Conventional approach -BandCatcher Preliminary concepts forabandcatcher revealed thatanytypeofmechanism thatwouldmeetthe safetyrequirement forfailsafeoperation ofthedualboltcuttersinvolved complex configurations. In addition, themechanism wouldhavetoadapttotheejection systems suchthattheycouldbe integrated intotheSSPPstandard 141liter(5ft3)canister whichhasa50.8-cm (20-inch) inside diameter. Sincethemarman clampassembly hasapproximately a25.4-cm (10inch)outside diameter intheclamped configuration, therewouldbelimitedspacefortheassembly toactuate duringdeploy andstillbecaptured byasecond mechanism. Therewerealsoreliability issuesconcerning an additional mechanism ofthatcomplexity. Finally,thecatchermechanism wouldhavetoadapttoboth theHESandPES,whichhavesubstantially different baseconfigurations thatwouldinvolvedesign(s) ofseparate interface mounting hardware. 267