Recently, the Ceres-1 carrier rocket was successfully launched, sending the "Real time Monitoring System for Satellite Key Folding Components Status Based on Flexible Sensing" into the predetermined orbit. The system was jointly developed by Professor Yang Haitao from the team of Academician Huang Wei, Director of the National Key Laboratory of Flexible Electronics and Chief Scientist of the Institute of Flexible Electronics at Northwestern Polytechnical University, and Associate Researcher Sun Chong from the team of Professor Yue Xiaokui from the School of Aerospace at the university. This is the first in orbit application verification of flexible electronic sensing technology in monitoring the status of key components of spacecraft in China.

With the increasing demand for lightweight, deformable/foldable structures in modern spacecraft, how to real-time and accurately perceive the status of its key components has become a key core technical challenge that urgently needs to be solved. Flexible electronic technology, with its excellent characteristics of "light, thin, flexible, and transparent", provides a new and effective technological path for solving this problem.

The system validated in orbit this time is a significant achievement made by the flexible electronics research team led by Academician Huang Wei, who has focused on the need for reliable sensing in extreme aerospace environments through long-term research and development. The team has achieved key technological breakthroughs in the selection of high-performance flexible sensing materials, stable signal extraction and transmission, and optimization of environmental adaptability design, ensuring the accuracy and reliability of the system's in orbit operation. This system can monitor the deformation status and attitude information of key folding structures of satellites in real time, providing important data support for evaluating structural health and task execution.

This task is a successful practice of deep cross integration and collaborative research between the flexible electronics and aerospace disciplines at Northwestern Polytechnical University. Huang Wei said, "Flexible electronics is a cutting-edge interdisciplinary field of science and technology, a typical underlying and fundamental technology. The application of flexible electronics technology in high-end equipment, especially in the aerospace field, requires extremely strict material performance and system reliability. This successful in orbit verification is an important milestone for our team's core technology research in this field, marking that China has the ability to enter the 'unmanned zone' of aerospace grade flexible electronics technology applications

At present, the flexible real-time monitoring system has been running stably and has begun to transmit in orbit data. The research team is conducting continuous monitoring and in-depth analysis. The obtained data will be used to validate system performance, optimize design, and provide a technical foundation for intelligent state monitoring and health management of future higher value spacecraft. This achievement has effectively promoted the practical application of flexible electronic technology in aerospace engineering, providing new technological options for the intelligent upgrading and reliability improvement of China's aerospace equipment.

Source: Sensor Expert Network