Brigham Young University’s Compliant Mechanisms Research Lab is designing space technology inspired by the ancient art of origami.
“How can we go in and look at this art form which is producing these fantastically complex shapes from very simple materials in a way that we can use it to maybe create something new that hasn't even been thought of,” said Spencer Magleby, professor emeritus at BYU’s school of Mechanical Engineering.
“So 20 years or so ago, there started to be a lot of work on the mathematization of origami,” Magleby said.
Using various origami designs, their lab has created designs for a foldable antenna and telescope prototype to present to NASA and the U.S. Air Force.
These designs, they hope, can deploy off space rockets and permanently open to enhance satellite systems, more seamlessly and compactly than previous technology.
Magleby says the main challenge has been designing a structure that unfolds to a permanently flat antenna. Regular hinges don't work in a harsh space environment.
“On Earth, you put it on a table, and gravity pulls it down,” Magleby explained. “Everything's nice. In space, there's none of that. So it's got to open and just completely take care of itself.”
According to a press release on the designs published by BYU, “Engineers focused on magnetic hinges as a potential solution. Magnetic attraction naturally forms a “bistable” hinge—one that then requires energy input to separate the magnets. The engineers needed to manipulate this magnetic force.”
“So in a way, we get to mine all of the knowledge created by artists over hundreds of years to do this in a way that we can now use it to do something totally different than they had intended,” Magleby said.
As for what's next, Magleby says these designs will influence a variety of other designs moving forward by large contractors like SpaceX, Boeing and Hughes Aircraft. It's this ingenuity found in Utah that these designs will be up in space in the next few years.
"I am proud of the fact that Utah is on the forefront of some of these things,” Magleby shared. “I think it's a terrific acknowledgment of the awesome people that we have. In our lab it is such a pleasure, the highly collaborative nature of the faculty and students.
"In the end, most of this work is pounded out by our graduate students and undergraduate researchers. And you think about those capabilities that are just floating around in your neighborhood, it's really something else.”
