Origami Satellite Solar Panels

Trease a mechanical engineer at nasa designed solar panels based on the japanese art of folding paper called origami.

Origami satellite solar panels.

In 2014 nasa and brigham young university researchers teamed up to make an origami solar panel that. But now with an emphasis on small satellites and large structures trease says arrays inspired by this fold could see renewed usefulness. Origami is a source of inspiration for byu mechanical engineers who are working with the national science foundation nasa jpl and origami master robert lang. A centuries old japanese tradition is the inspiration behind some new nasa technology.

For instance large solar panel arrays for space satellites in the japanese space program have been miura folded before launch and then spread out in space. Miura intended this fold for solar arrays and in 1995 a solar panel with this design was unfolded on the space flyer unit a japanese satellite. Designing a solar panel with origami folds required some clever engineering origami is intended to work with paper but even the thinnest solar panels are several times thicker than heavy. Solar panels used in space already were designed to fold up but brian believes that by folding solar panels like paper is folded in origami it s easier to get these panels into space.

In fact japanese astrophysicist koryo miura invented a fold named for him with solar panels in mind. Solar panel arrays that fold and unfold like origami could be headed to space. Brian trease at nasa s jet propulsion laboratory has been thinking about how it could be used in spacecraft. 3 4 a folded miura fold can be packed into a compact shape its thickness reflecting only the thickness of the folded material.

Origami has been a hot topic in technology recently. In a 1995 experiment a solar panel with this so called miura fold which appears to be divided evenly into a checkerboard of parallelograms when opened was unfolded on a japanese satellite called the space flyer unit according to nasa. Like the smart radiator these solar panels can also be used on tiny satellites like cubesats.