Papers by Author: Minoru Sasaki

Abstract: This paper presents the development of a small experimental rocket for the National Launching Campaign held by the DGAEM in France since 2009. The campaign organized by CNES was conducted by the French Association of Planete Sciences. The rocket design was developed by Space Club Gifu and Sasaki Lab at Gifu University. The main mission is the autonomous navigation of a quasi-satellite maneuvering with a parachute and two propellers to a target point using GPS data. The rocket is 2m long, 150mm in diameter, weight 11.4kg and made entirely of CFRP. With a solid rocket motor provided by CNES, the rocket can reach an altitude of 840m. Onboard are a pressure sensor, accelerometer, GPS and two video cameras. The video cameras begin monitoring at launch. The acceleration, velocity and position were recorded for later comparison to simulation data. While the rocket launch and quasi-satellite deployment were successful, strong winds prevented the latter from maneuvering to the target point. All components were recovered intact and all recorded data were available for analysis.

Abstract: Unlike well-investigated polymer-based soft actuators such as gel, Ionic Polymer-Metal Composite, conducting polymer, a CFRP-based polymeric laminate possesses quite distinguished properties. It was previously reported that a CFRP-PVC laminate exhibited two-way deflection in accordance with environmental temperature, but it was asymmetric deflection due to the asymmetric laminate structure. In this study, we successfully fabricated a new CFRP-based polymeric laminate which can exhibit symmetric deflection. Despite such a successful outcome, there was large room to improve the degree of its deflection. Improvement of temperature control method for the newly fabricated CFRP-based polymeric laminate resulted in enhancement of the degree of its deflection.