Ultralight Ladder-type Coilable Space Structures

Abstract

We describe the concept of an ultralight ladder-type coilable strip used as the main element to build large planar deployable space solar power spacecrafts. It is composed of TRAC longerons connected with lenticular cross-section rods which enables it to fully flatten and thus be packaged efficiently. The design is tackled here as well as the manufacturing of a scaled version of this new type of structures. Finite element analyses are used to understand the underlying behavior of such structures. Experimental model testing is then used as a way of validating this computational framework. Finally a simulation framework enabling simulation at the spacecraft scale is presented and preliminary results obtained with shows how such structures behave while integrated into a larger spacecraft.