Redundant StarShade Truss Deployment Motor/Cable Assembly

The proposed innovations are as follows: 1) A fully redundant electrical and mechanical motor/cable deployment assembly 2) A redundant motor/cable deployment assembly that is integrated and deploys a perimeter truss for a starshade 3) A truss strut mechanism that allows petal and truss deployment and provides a stiff and repeatable support 4) A truss node light seal the suppressess all sun and starlight through a truss node with articulatinig truss elements and inner disk and petal interfaces. The significance and relevance of the proposed innovations is to meet the technical challenges of deploying a large scale perimeter truss (10-30m diameter) for a starshade. The STDT's "Exo-S Final Report" identified an open issue to "Mature perimeter truss technology readiness." This is part of a defined starshade technology gap S-5 that is titled "Demonstrate inner disk deployment with optical shield." In the NASA JPL starshade design the petals are placed into their precise position by the deploying truss and truss strut. The truss also deploys the spiral wrapped inner disk and at the end tensions the precision spokes. If the truss was not able to fully deploy or meet the on-orbit load (deployment and deployed) and positioning requirements then the mission would fail. Obviously the truss deployment mechanism needs to be a robust and reliable system.

Technology developed during this SBIR program will be directly applied to any NASA telescope program involved with exoplanet discovery and characterization that needs an external occulter, or Starshade. NASA has identified a potential rendezvous mission with WFIRST/AFTA because it is a large astrophysics telescope capable of supporting direct imaging with a starshade. Beyond starshades, the technology developed through this SBIR would apply to any cable driven deployment that would benefit from the reliability of a fully redundant electrical and mechanical system. Cable spoolers are used for deploying articulating booms, trusses, thermal blankets, solar arrays as well as deploying and controlling guys and stays.

Large scale deployable perimeter trusses could also be used for large solar arrays for SEP applications or planetary surface operations that would need a robust architecture that can withstand high accelerations. In addition, the technology developed through this SBIR would apply to any cable driven deployment that would benefit from the reliability of a fully redundant electrical and mechanical system. Cable spoolers are used for deploying articulating booms, trusses, thermal blankets, solar arrays as well as deploying and controlling guys and stays.

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