Preliminary Study of An Origami-inspired Deployable Structure for a Small-Scale Demonstrator

Abstract

The progressive democratization of human space exploration has brought a potential demand for affordable large, pressurized structures in space such as habitats as well as fuel tanks in orbit. Unconventional space structures are a potential engineering solution because they can optimize the structural performance for the launcher's geometric limitations. Specifically, deployable origami-inspired structures allow for a compromise solution between available volume and cargo weight. Origami-inspired structures have been studied for space applications in past and recent works, but there are still gaps between the in-orbit requirements and technological challenges with the current state-of-the-art. Consequently, there is a need for small scale demonstrators for this technology that will allow to characterize and validate the deployment concept. Such a small-scale demonstrator would fit within 12U CubeSat (or equivalent small sat configurations) and would unveil possible technical challenges not considered in the modelling stage. This work explores the design of a prototype for a deployable structure with a high packaging potential and a small number of degrees of freedom. A cylindrical origami deployable structure is studied under its processes of folding and deployment. This configuration has also the advantage of a possible pressure-controlled deployment, one with special interest for habitable modules or, additionally, fuel tanks for transportation and storage. In particular, the first steps towards a complete design of the demonstrator are explored: the shape optimization, the material selection, and its structural behaviour. To design this demonstrator a parametric trade-off study of the different origami patterns is performed: looking for an optimal packaging ratio. Once the geometrically optimal configurations are obtained for each origami pattern, relevant materials are selected, and possible manufacturing challenges are discussed.