Hat tip to WCOG member, Helen Sperber:
A
senior at South El Monte High School, and founder of its Engineering
Club, Hua, 17, landed a coveted high school summer internship at JPL
alongside about eight other high school students, where he joined the
research of the deployment of solar arrays that utilize the basic
principles of origami — a Japanese art form that creates flashy designs
like birds, flowers and cartoon characters by folding a piece of paper.
“The way it folds up is very unique compared to other arrays
where it’s just a square piece that folds up,” he said. “So there’s
definitely some art in there.”
“They’re very aesthetic in their appearance in the way
they fold, much like other origami,” said Brian Trease, a mechanical
engineer at JPL and Hua’s mentor during his internship. “We cut it into
pieces and reassembled in a certain way. Origami has ways. We’re allowed
to break the rules for engineering purposes.”
The origami-inspired solar arrays use a rigid structure to safely
fold into itself, keeping the array’s 90 individual solar cells sturdy.
“Fragile things like solar cells, which could just break when they’re bent, would be perfect for this solar array,” Hua said.
He said the design could also be applied in other applications.
Shrinking
instruments to make for more room is a goal for current and future
space exploration, according to Randall Foehner, a JPL mechanical
engineer and the group supervisor of Hua’s internship group, division
38, which focused on mechanical deployables, actuators and booms.
“We’re trying to do more science with less spacecraft, so we’re
miniaturizing everything,” Foehner said. “This technology, folding and
storing in small volumes, is in perfect alignment with the future of a
spacecraft and what we’re trying to do.”
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