Thermally-Stable High Strain Deployable Structures

The proposed innovation is for the development of a thermally-stable composite made of carbon fibers and elastomeric resin. This combination of materials will allow a composite with higher stiffness and strain compared with materials currently in use for space. The significance of this innovation is that the proposed material will enable more capable deployable structures, minimize complexity, mass, and cost. Specifically the work done in Phase I and Phase II will enable cost effective components and subsystem technologies for flight systems, such as large sunshields and external occulters in Phase III. The objective of this project will be to develop technologies and methods that improve the design, fabrication, modeling, inspection, and testing of composite materials for space deployable structures. This includes methods of testing and modeling/characterization of the material in order to guide its formulation. The characterization of the new elastomeric composite will be accomplished through a series of standardized tests, supported by non-standard tests as required.