Nicolas Lee
A still photo from an experiment video shows a tiny cubesat satellite prototype after deploying a folded sail in weightlessness aboard NASA’s “vomit comet” research plane.
By Tia Ghose
Space.com
A simple paper-folding technique could help tiny satellites unfurl big sails in space to detect micrometeoroid impacts, scientists say.
The folding strategy, described Tuesday in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society A Mathematical and Physical Sciences, could be used to pack relatively large sails into miniature satellites known as cubesats. When the sails pop out, they could provide a bigger area to catch meteoroid impacts.
“It’s like putting a bigger windshield on your car to catch more bugs,” said study co-author Nicolas Lee, an aerospace
engineer at the California Institute of Technology.