Engineers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory are looking to the ancient art of origami to design a folding shade that would block starlight so space telescopes can focus on distant worlds.
The “Starshade” is one of several projects underway at JPL inspired by origami. The prototype spacecraft would tightly fold into a diameter of about 5 meters, then unfurl to more than 20 meters once in space to take on a sunflower-esque shape.
By blocking the light from other stars, the space telescope could examine exoplanets, the distant planets around other stars. Most of those planets have been found through indirect means, such as observing the planets passing in front of a star or detecting the “wobble” their orbit creates.
“These stars are so bright that the planets get lost,” said Manan Arya, an engineer at JPL and the project’s expert on origami.”(Starshade) is a giant parasol, essentially, that blocks out the sunlight, so you can image these planets next to the star.”
The flower and its petals would be roughly the size of a baseball diamond when extended, a size that is much too large for modern rockets. Each petal helps redirect the light from stars away from the telescope’s lens, allowing scientists to use advanced techniques to study the atmospheres, particularly of planets suspected to be Earth-like.
Arya, who wrote his Ph.D. thesis on the use of origami in space structures, found inspiration in an origami design created by Jeremy Shafer, a professional entertainer and origamist based in Berkeley.
Shafer’s design, “The Flasher,” wraps in a spiraling coil, but unravels into a large, flat circular shape.
For Starshade, “the Flasher” worked as an inspiration, but they had to refine it to fit with thicker materials and to fold mechanically without tears. The shade has dozens of petals that have to expand with enough precision to be within a human hair of their intended size, Arya said.
“That’s where the mathematics and engineering really comes through,” he said.
The team had to develop algorithms that allow the Starshade to “fold smoothly, predictably and repeatedly,” according to NASA.
Once unfolded in microgravity, the Starshade can’t fold up again. It’s also subject to damage from micrometeorite strikes, though the origami-inspired folding patterns make it less likely light will seep through.
The engineers in the Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s Advanced Large Deployable Structures hope to use the Starshade on a future space telescope launching in the 2020s or 2030s. But at this point, the technology is still a prototype without a mission.
Arya’s interest in origami stemmed from seeing it as a possible solution to NASA’s constant need to fit large objects in small spaces. But he fell in love with the art, he said.
Now his office and room are filled with folded objects, with the art serving as fun and as a test bed for new ideas for the future of space technology
Other technologies inspired by origami are under development at JPL.
Another concept, “Transformers for Lunar Extreme Environments,” could use unfolding reflective mirrors to redirect sunlight to the moon to melt ice, or power machinery, according to NASA.
These folding technologies could also be developed in CubeSats, the less costly miniature satellites being launched by NASA and other organizations.
Earlier this summer, NASA issued an open call for origami designs for a radiation shield, according to a media release.
JPL is also using origami as inspiration for PUFFER, a robot with a collapsible body that can pop up to climb over objects, or shrink down, to go under or through.
In an interview earlier this year, PUFFER’s project manager Jaakko Karras said he imagines the “Pop-Up Flat Folding Explorer Robot” launching as a swarm from larger rovers.
“With multiple PUFFERs, you can now start going into terrains, where in the past, your wireless communication might have been severely restricted,” he said. “It’s something that you would never want to drive your flagship, multibillion-dollar rover into, but if you have a group of PUFFERs, they could go into the cave and set up a repeater chain to relay out the data.”
For Arya, origami in space technology is still in its infancy, though he sees applicability for finding solutions for NASA’s never-ending packing problems in a variety of areas.
“At this point, I don’t think any origami artist would call this origami, but it has all the same principles and mathematics,” he said.
