Conceiving, Designing and Testing Giant Ultralight Coilable Space Structures 

Abstract: The dream of kilometer-scale space systems comprising solar collectors and phased arrays that beam power to the earth may be close to reality, through advances made by the Caltech Space Solar Power Project. This project has proposed a modular system architecture, and developed and recently demonstrated in space the key enabling technologies.

The main building block is a 60 m x 60 m plate-like square spacecraft, tightly coiled for launch and deployed in space. Its concept uses origami-inspired packaging in combination with ultrathin composite shells forming frame structures that support photovoltaic films and RF antennas. The design is driven by the requirements that the structure should be able to robustly deploy into its intended, flat configuration and, once fully deployed, should have sufficient stiffness to allow dynamic maneuvers to be carried out without exciting any flexible modes.

The deployment of a proof-of-concept physical model has been successfully  demonstrated in low earth orbit and useful lessons were learnt about the differences between testing in the lab vs. testing in zero-g. 

Bio: Sergio Pellegrino is the Joyce and Kent Kresa Professor of Aerospace and Civil Engineering at Caltech, JPL Senior Research Scientist and Co-Director of the Caltech Space Solar Power Project. He is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, a Fellow of AIAA and a Chartered Structural Engineer. He has been President of the International Association for Shell and Spatial Structures (IASS) and the founding chair of the AIAA Spacecraft Structures Technical Committee. Pellegrino has received a Pioneers’ Award in 2002 from the Space Structures Research Center, University of Surrey, NASA Robert H. Goddard Exceptional Achievement Team Awards in 2009 and 2016, and the IASS Torroja Medal in 2022.

All seminars are held on Wednesdays from 12:00 -1:00 p.m. in the Bowen Hall Auditorium Room 222. A light lunch is provided at 11:30 a.m. in the Bowen Hall Atrium immediately prior to the seminar.