Autonomous triangular modules could build tomorrow's mega-observatories - Phys.org
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Private companies are getting better at launching more mass into space with larger rockets. But there is still a major constraint on the size of objects we can get into orbit—fairing size. This places physical constraints on the overall shape of what we can launch and severely limits the sizes of, say, a communications array or a power satellite. But a new paper from researchers at Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics and the Beijing Institute of Technology offers a solution—a self-shaping, deployable module that can fine-tune both its positioning and its own dimensions. The findings are published in the journal Space: Science & Technology.
To understand how that offers an advantage, it's best to look at how engineers currently solve this problem. Typically, they use a rollable deployable boom—a stiff, thin strip of carbon fiber that can coil up like a tape measure, then unwind to snap straight once deployed in microgravity. The problem is that these systems almost never deploy perfectly in real environments, and when talking about snapping together multiple modules, even a few millimeters of error can cause the entire mission to fail.
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