On April 23, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) implemented the "Kakushin Rising" mission, sending multiple small satellites into a sun-synchronous orbit about 540 kilometers above the earth. Among them, OrigamiSat-2, an "origami" cube satellite with a side length of only 10 centimeters, is particularly interesting. This satellite is equipped with a deployable reflective array antenna, which can be unfolded like origami after entering orbit, reaching a size 25 times that of the folded state.
This launch is the latest stage of JAXA’s “Innovative Satellite Technology Demonstration Program”. About 53 minutes after the rocket took off from New Zealand, the mission completed the deployment of a total of eight small satellites. The relevant loads will serve multiple technical verification and application goals such as earthquake electromagnetic precursor detection, ocean monitoring, and ultra-small camera multispectral imaging.
Reports pointed out that the use of origami and related "paper-cutting" concepts in engineering design has a long history in Japan and other countries. In 1970, Dr. Miura Koryo proposed the famous "Miura folding" structure, which was initially used for large maps that were easy to store and unfold. Its research background itself is related to aerospace deployable structures. By 1995, Japan's "Space Vehicle Unit" satellite had used this structure for solar panels, allowing it to be deployed smoothly in orbit and had a lasting impact on the solar wing design of subsequent spacecraft.
Similar ideas have also been applied to solar sail aircraft. Japanese designers call this type of aircraft a "space yacht." Its principle does not rely on engines or rocket fuel, but uses photon pressure to propel solar sails forward. In 2010, JAXA launched the world's first small solar sail vehicle IKAROS. The spacecraft flew 80,800 kilometers to Venus with the help of an origami solar sail, becoming one of the representative cases of the application of folding aerospace structures.
In the aerospace field, launch cost has always been a key constraint. The article quoted information as saying that as early as around 2000, the construction cost of a conventional meteorological satellite was about US$290 million, and the construction cost of a reconnaissance satellite was about US$390 million. The launch cost would need to be increased by an additional US$10 million to US$400 million. Large rockets cost more than $4,000 per pound of payload to launch, while small rockets can cost up to $14,000. Take the 2009 commercial communications satellite TerreStar-1 as an example. Its antenna and solar panels are huge after unfolding. The entire satellite weighs about 6.91 tons. The construction and insurance cost is about 350 million U.S. dollars. Just launching on the Ariane 5 rocket cost 165 million U.S. dollars.
In contrast, CubeSats have significant cost advantages due to their small size, light weight, and short development cycle. Teams of university students can also develop cubesats in a short period of time with a budget of several thousand dollars. Such satellites can weigh as low as 1 kilogram and as high as about 10 kilograms, and are even light enough to be launched using new platforms such as "balloon rockets." The article mentioned that the Bloostar system being developed by the Spanish company Zero 2 Infinity can theoretically send a 140 kilogram payload into a low-Earth orbit of about 200 kilometers, or a 75 kilogram payload into a sun-synchronous orbit of about 600 kilometers.
The folding reflect array antenna adopted by OrigamiSat-2 this time also reflects the development direction of low-cost and high-gain communication technology. Different from traditional reflector antennas, reflectarray antennas work together with a passive planar reflector through a feed unit to control the phase of reflected electromagnetic waves to form a focused beam, which is suitable for orbit and deep space missions.
It is worth noting that this is the second time in five months that JAXA has used the US commercial aerospace company Rocket Lab to carry out a satellite launch mission. Rocket Lab is headquartered in Long Beach, California, and operates launch facilities in the United States and the Mahia Peninsula of New Zealand. Its Electron two-stage rocket is mainly designed for small payload launches, and some configurations are recyclable.
Rocket Lab founder and CEO Peter Baker said that the successful execution of two exclusive launches for JAXA within a few months and the precise delivery of satellites into the target orbit shows that the Electron rocket has become one of the small launch tools favored by the national space agency. The article also mentioned that the global CubeSat industry has reached US$355 million. Rocket Lab said that the company has deployed more than 250 satellites, and its business covers launch services, spacecraft platforms, satellite components and on-orbit management, and cooperates with agencies and companies such as NASA, the U.S. Space Force, DARPA, and Canon.