© 2018 All Rights Reserved. Government sponsorship acknowledged. control of the motor rate, and the encoder could even be used to monitor the deployment status. Therefore,  a deterministic deployment was much preferred.    Friction on Sliding Components  Be very wary of any effects friction may have, as was learned in the constant force springs in the mid-rib  hinges. When deploying, ensure all components have relaxed to their lowest strain energy state prior to  deploying, to ensure there are no surprises later in the program.   Press fits  Beware of press fits. Even if the type of material is the same (i.e. stainless steel), ensure the microstructure  and details of the alloys are understood, especially when it comes to CTE effects. We were able to use a  thicker bond line to compensate for the dimension changes.   General Lessons Learned  While lessons learned above were quite specific, there were also two key general lessons learned. First,  ensure understanding of all the variations of performance of a system, especially when dealing with a  complex system like an electrical system. This was learned when working with the motor controller. Second,  while we do our best to understand our mechanisms through environmental testing, one really is not done  learning the ins and outs of a mechanism until the mechanism is fully qualified, or likely even operational in  orbit. While we are not in orbit yet, given what we continue to learn about this mechanism design, we expect  to continue to glean lessons learned throughout orbit.  Conclusions  Despite the challenges, lessons learned (many of which may be obvious to the experienced designer), it is  truly exciting to have KaPDA functioning as expected, and slated to launch in the next several months. It  will be even more exciting to see what KaPDA does for small satellites, as it is a new capability which will  dramatically increase satellite gain, whether it be radar instruments, or high data rate communications. The  design has also been licensed to a company for commercialization, so beyond just changing capabilities  for future NASA missions, KaPDA may very well be a ground-breaking technology for a much broader array  of missions.   Acknowledgements  This research was carried out at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under a  contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. This work was funded by JPL internal  R&D and the RainCube Mission through the NASA ESTO INVEST program. The authors would like to thank  the many individuals who assisted in the course of the project on design, fabrication, and advice including:  Taryn Bailey, Brian Hirsch, Pedro Moreira, Jeff Harrell, Michael Johnson, Mark Balzer, Kim Aaron, Mehran  Mobrem, Gus Forsberg, Don Lewis, Gerry Gaughen, Richard Rebele, Miguel Ramsey, Building 103 Techs,  Hugo Rodriguez, Rodolfo Herrera, Robert Demerjian, Michelle Easter, Gary Wang, Josh Ravich, Ryan  Sorensen, Natalie Lockwood-Barajas, and especially Brian Merrill of Spectrum Marine and Model Services  (SMMS), who ensured all the parts came together in a near perfect assembly. A number of interns also  helped with the antenna development over the years including Leah Ginsberg, David Hunter, Ted Steiner,  and Savannah Velasco.   References  [1] N. A. of S. Medicine Engineering, and, D. on E. and P. Sciences, S. S. Board, and C. on A. S. G. with CubeSats, Achieving Science with CubeSats: Thinking Inside the Box . National Academies Press, 2016. [2] J. Sauder, N. Chahat, M. Thomson, R. Hodges, E. Peral, and Y. Rahmat-Samii, “Ultra-Compact KaBand Parabolic Deployable Antenna for RADAR and Interplanetary CubeSats,” AIAAUSU Conf. Small Satell. , Aug. 2015. NASA/CP—2018-219887 372