# Research on Design, Simulation, and Experiment of Separation Mechanism for Micro-Nano Satellites
## 5 Experimental Verification
### Separation Test  
Due to the effects of thermal expansion and cold contraction, as well as the vacuum environment, the satellite may become stuck during separation. To avoid this, the satellite was separated following the vibration test at room temperature, vacuum high-temperature section, and vacuum low-temperature section, respectively. The satellite was separated successfully under all conditions. The separation mechanism's functional reliability has been fully validated at room temperature, \(-40\)\({}^{\circ}\)C, and \(85\)\({}^{\circ}\)C, respectively. The separation test is illustrated in Figure 17.  
In this paper, a gravity compensation system is created to acquire the satellite's attitude parameters, such as separation velocity and angular velocity. By using rope suspension to compensate for the satellite's gravity, this system simulates the microgravity environment of space. The gravity compensation system is comprised of a truss, a ruler, a rope pulley, a rope, a light source, a high-speed camera, a computer processor, and a counterweight satellite. The principle of the measuring system is illustrated in Figure 18. As depicted in Figure 19, the entire satellite separation process was captured using a high-speed camera. Calculations indicate that the instantaneous separation velocity when the satellite is ejected from the separation mechanism is 1.39 m/s, which meets the indicator requirements. The actual separation velocity is less than the simulation value, which is due to the simulation process ignoring the friction between the satellite and the separation mechanism. Due to the limited energy available to the MF satellites, the separation angular velocity is a critical indicator of the separation process. If the satellite separation angular velocity is too high, it will take a long time for the satellite to perform angular velocity damping. If the satellite's angular velocity cannot be decreased within the required time range within 4000 s of separation, it will lack the energy required to deploy the solar panels. As a result, the separation mechanism must be capable of separating the satellite with the smallest possible angle of separation. This paper discusses the results of a three-axis gyro for measuring the satellite's angular velocity during separation. The installation of a three-axis gyroscope within the satellite is depicted in Figure 20.  
Figure 17: Separation test. (**a**) room temperature; (**b**) vacuum high-temperature; (**c**) vacuum low-temperature. \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c c c c} \hline \hline \multirow{2}{*}{**No.**} & \multirow{2}{*}{**Location**} & \multicolumn{2}{c}{**X-Response/gms**} & \multicolumn{2}{c}{**Y-Response/gms**} & \multicolumn{2}{c}{**Z-Response/gms**} \\ \cline{3-6}  & & **Analysis** & **Test** & **Analysis** & **Test** & **Analysis** & **Test** \\ \hline A1 & Camera mounting point & 4.3 & 2.2 & 5.6 & 2.6 & 6.3 & 3.1 \\ A2 & Camera backplate & 4.2 & 2.1 & 5.0 & 1.6 & 5.7 & 2.1 \\ A3 & Primary mirror of the camera & 3.7 & 1.6 & 5.1 & 2.1 & 5.5 & 1.8 \\ A4 & Secondary mirror of the camera & 5.5 & 4.2 & 5.5 & 2.1 & 5.6 & 5.6 \\ A5 & OBHD & 4.9 & 2.9 & 4.4 & 1.9 & 5.4 & 2.3 \\ A6 & Solar panel & 5.6 & 4.2 & 9.3 & 7.3 & 11.6 & 11.7 \\ B1 & Cover door & 14.9 & 15.4 & 8.7 & 8.4 & 12.0 & 11.5 \\ B2 & Side panel & 6.5 & 6.7 & 4.6 & 4.2 & 12.1 & 12.8 \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table} 
Table 9: Results of random vibration test. Several separation tests were conducted to guarantee the test's reliability, and the separation angular velocity results were statistically presented in the Table 10. The highest separation angular velocity in each separation result was less than 1\({}^{\circ}\)/s, as shown in the table, which matches the index's standards.