Development of Helical Boom Manufacturing

Heliospace Corp. proposes to develop anbsp;process and build a machine to fabricate helical booms that will allow a length increase of 85% over what is currently available at reduced cost, to greatly increase the speed of optimization and iteration of such boom designs, and to allow much more rapid manufacturing. Such a machine is already under construction, and work under Phase I of this proposal will complete it and develop the processnbsp;to the point of producing single coils with the necessary properties. Phase II will add systems needed to produce complete booms and to allow the production of flight-clean booms and the addition of the coatings required for some applications.