Elastic Roll-Out Boom Solar Array Deployment
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Existing solar array technologies for spacecraft face challenges in minimizing weight and complexity while ensuring reliable deployment and maximizing deployed stiffness and strength, often requiring complex mechanical components that increase cost and risk of failure.
Innovation Solution
The use of an elastic roll-out boom with interlocking elements that self-deploy via internal strain energy, eliminating the need for heavy actuators and complex mechanisms, and allowing for directional control and uniform stowage of solar cell blankets.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If complex mechanical components (hinges, latches, actuators) are used for solar array deployment, then deployment reliability is improved, but weight and device complexity increase
Solution Approach 1:
The solar array deployment mechanism utilizes the elastic memory properties of the laminate material itself to provide the deployment force, eliminating the need for external actuators. The laminate structure serves both as the solar array support and as the deployment actuator through its inherent shape memory characteristics.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces traditional mechanical deployment systems (motors, springs, cables) with an elastic memory laminate structure that automatically transitions from a stowed to a deployed configuration through its inherent elastic properties, substituting complex mechanical systems with a smart material-based solution.
2Strength
If traditional rigid panel substrates with mechanical deployment structures are used, then structural strength is improved, but weight increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent employs a flexible elastic memory laminate structure instead of rigid panels, allowing the solar array to maintain structural integrity while significantly reducing weight. The laminate flexes during deployment and maintains the required shape through its elastic properties rather than through heavy rigid support structures.
Solution Approach 2:
The solar array utilizes a composite elastic memory laminate structure that combines multiple material properties to achieve both the required structural strength and weight reduction, integrating support functions into the laminate itself rather than requiring separate structural components.
3Weight of moving object
If flexible blanket substrates are used without external deployment booms, then weight is reduced, but deployment control and directionality are lost
Solution Approach 1:
The elastic memory laminate automatically controls its own deployment process through its inherent shape memory properties, self-regulating the deployment speed and direction without requiring external control mechanisms, while still achieving reliable and controlled deployment.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This solution reduces the number of mechanical components, lowers weight and cost, and enhances deployment reliability by utilizing the elastic boom's internal strain energy for unidirectional deployment, maintaining structural integrity and power generation efficiency.
Implementation Method 1
configured to be flattened and rolled tightly to form a roll in a stowed configuration... utilizing the elastic boom's internal strain energy for unidirectional deployment
Data Source
AI summary
An elastic roll out boom includes a thin wall, tubular, elongate structure having a plurality of interlocking elements disposed in spaced-apart relation along the surface thereof. The elastic roll out boom is configured to be flattened and rolled tightly to form a roll in a stowed configuration. The plurality of interlocking elements are positioned such that a first interlocking element engages a second interlocking element when the elastic roll out boom is in the stowed configuration. This prevents shear displacement between layers of the roll out boom.