Expansion Rod design method of Capturing Nozzle Device for non-cooperative satellite

Expansion Rod Capturing Nozzle Device is developed to achieve the function of capturing the non-cooperative satellite by locking the main engine nozzle. Nozzle structure is captured by the device through its throat, so the size and mass are small. The overall structure design of the device and the operating principle of the Expansion Rod mechanism are described. A method of Meshing Profile Modeling is proposed and introduced in particular. The method is used to design the key component of Expansion Rod. The Expansion Rod designed by the modeling method and the not designed one are compared in virtual simulation software. Verify the correctness and necessity of the modeling method by the simulations. In order to study the working process of the device, the virtual simulation and the related experiments are carried out, and the experimental results were analyzed. The simulation and experiments results show that the designed Expansion Rod using the modeling method has the ability to capture and lock the satellite nozzle.