Elastic Deployable Composite Tubular Roll-Out Boom

DSS's innovative Elastic Deployable Composite Tubular Roll-Out Boom will provide revolutionary performance when compared to conventional state-of-the-art technologies, and will significantly enhance operations and capability for future NASA missions. The proposed Roll-Out Boom is strong, stiff, lightweight, thin, scalable, compactly-stowed, and fabricated from ultra-lightweight composite materials. The Roll-Out Boom can be used as a self-deploying antenna, electric field antenna, linear actuator, grapple arm, gravity gradient boom, camera support, inspection aid, or as an actuator/structure for deploying payloads, antennas, solar arrays, instrument benches, solar sails, and sunshades. The Roll-Out boom is a very simple concept that integrates an innovative deployment synchronization system to provide controlled, reliable and repeatable deployments, to produce deployments always in a predictable/known direction. The Roll-Out Boom provides exceptional structural performance in a small lightweight package, and is a direct replacement to current state-of-the-art systems. Boom sizes envisioned can be from 0.5-inch to 12-inches in diameter (or greater), with lengths from 1-m to 50-m long (or longer). The significance of the proposed technology and program will enable future NASA and non-NASA missions by providing a revolutionary and positive performance impact to the end-user, and allow for the rapid insertion of this mission-enabling technology for future applications.