Volume 8, Number 5 September/October 2000
Advanced Technologies
Space Inflatables on the
Rise
Large
telescopes and structures 10 times the size of the Rose Bowl in Pasadena,
California, that can be compacted and deployed in a single small launch
vehicle and then inflated once they are in orbit, are a major part of
the future of Earth and space exploration.
As part of the Gossamer Spacecraft Initiative, which is chartered with
developing technology for large telescopes and space solar sails, scientists
and engineers at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California,
are identifying and exploring new ways to put large structures in space.
The result is breakthroughs in ultra-light, inflatable materials that
will substantially reduce mission costs and enable large, ultra-light
objects to observe the Earth. These breakthroughs will aid NASA researchers
in their quest to explore the farthest reaches of the universe.
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The
ARISE poster illustrates the research that will be possible when large,
inflatable space antennas are launched into space. (Poster provided
by NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory.) |
Without new technology
and new materials, we cant go forward. We need new materials, designs
and solutions, said Artur Chmielewski, manager of JPL Space Inflatables
Technology. We need very light, powerful telescopes that can peer
deep into the cosmos and look for Earth-like planets around other stars.
An important step in the technology development process is space testing
of prototype inflatable systems. A past test program of inflatable technology,
the Inflatable Antenna Experiment, deployed by the Space Shuttle Endeavour
in 1996, provided significant data on the performance of inflatable systems.
The 14-meter inflatable antenna was deployed and inflated for several
hours in space. This successful demonstration of a tennis court-size inflatable
structure in space has generated a lot of interest in the use of this
promising new technology. Now, scientists are planning on-orbit tests
to develop the technology further.
One of the first space applications of gossamer technology will be the
Advanced Radio Interferometry between Space and Earth (ARISE) mission,
which will use a high-resolution imaging technique called the space-based
Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI). An orbiting 25-meter (82-foot)
inflatable radio telescope will be used in conjunction with ground telescopes
to take pictures of space phenomena, such as neighborhoods around black
holes, with a resolution 3,000 times better than that offered by the Hubble
Space Telescope.
Innovators such as JPLs Dr. Mark Dragovan say that inflatable technology
is the wave of the future. Lightweight, flexible, inflatable materials
will someday replace traditional steel and glass materials on space antennas
and telescopes to the point that the whole telescope will consist of a
reflector and detector as thin as plastic kitchen wrap, he said.
The challenge for NASA is to launch structures that are one hundred
times lower density than the Hubble Space Telescope. If the telescope
is extremely low-mass, then one can make it very large and inexpensive
in our quest to put big eyes in the sky.
Inflatables have a major advantage over mechanical structures because
even in the most modern telescopes, hundreds of pounds of steel and glass
support a very thin reflecting surface that does all the work in collecting
light from the cosmos. The alternative to these massive structures is
inflatables, which are often 10 times less expensive, can be tightly packed
into small canisters, and are lower mass, allowing launches on smaller,
cheaper rockets.
The space applications for antennas many times the size of today's mechanical
orbiting antennas include satellites for deep space and mobile communications,
Earth observations, astronomical observations, and space-based radar.
Solar-powered sails thinner than human hair for propelling spacecraft
to the stars, sunshades the size of a soccer field for space telescopes,
inflatable habitats for the moon or Mars, and 24-meter antennas that can
be held by one hand are all possible, according to scientists at JPL.
Future work on inflatables will concentrate on the areas of materials
research, development of optical-quality telescopes, and huge solar sail
structures.
The Gossamer Spacecraft Initiative is managed jointly by JPL and NASA
Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia. NASAs Office of Space
Science in Washington, DC, has overall program management responsibility.
For more information, contact Artur B. Chmielewski, manager of Jet Propulsion
Laboratory Space Inflatables Technology 818/354-0255 abc@jpl.nasa.gov Please
mention you read about it inInnovation.
NASA Official: Jonathan Root
Web Designer: Shawn Flowers
Credits
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