{"id":200,"date":"2014-08-21T11:23:43","date_gmt":"2014-08-21T11:23:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/zoldenergiablog.hu\/en\/?page_id=200"},"modified":"2016-05-05T09:09:09","modified_gmt":"2016-05-05T09:09:09","slug":"origami-space-flowers","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/zoldenergiablog.hu\/en\/archive\/origami-space-flowers\/","title":{"rendered":"Origami ‘space flowers’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Getting large equipment into space is no easy feat.\u00a0At nearly \u00a314,000 ($23,400) to send a kilogram into orbit, it’s expensive, and room is always limited. To deal with the problem, Nasa has turned to the ancient art of origami, in the hopes of getting larger solar panels into space. These solar panels could someday be used in the form of an orbiting power plant that harvests energy from the sun and beams it back down to Earth.<\/p>\n

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After two years of research, the space agency has come closer to that goal by creating a solar array with a diameter of 8.9ft (2.7 metres) when folded and 82ft (25 metres) when unfurled. The design, which looks like a flower blooming, was created by Nasa mechanical engineer, Brian Trease. Mr Trease partnered with researchers at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, to pursue the idea that spacecraft could be built using origami folds.<\/p>\n

Sending the solar arrays up to space would be easy, Mr Trease said, because they could all be folded and packed into a single rocket launch, with ‘no astronaut assembly required.’ Panels used in space missions already incorporate simple folds, collapsing like a fan or an accordion.<\/p>\n

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One technique that has been used for an origami-inspired solar array is called a Miura fold invented by Japanese astrophysicist Koryo Miura. When you open the structure, it appears to be divided evenly into a checkerboard of parallelograms.<\/p>\n

With this particular fold, there’s only one way to open or close it: Pull on one corner and the whole thing is open with only a tiny amount of effort.<\/p>\n