Space 

Building systems for use in orbit or further into space poses unique challenges.  In addition to requiring that the materials be able to withstand hard radiation from the sun, they must be able to withstand impacts from high velocity micro asteroids, they must be lightweight, and they must fit inside the rocket. This last one often places the greatest constraints on the system design.  Once a probe has been deployed out of the rocket, it can be as large as needed, but it must be able to fold inside the smallest package possible during launch.

By using nitinol actuators, your system can fold into very tiny compartments for launch.  Then, rather than consuming electricity to deploy the structure, it only needs to be exposed to sunlight.  The sunlight will then warm the nitinol, causing the structure to deploy. We have built structures that were several meters long, occupying more than 2 cubic meters of space when deployed, which occupied just 30 cubic centimeters of space onboard the rocket.

Are you ready to make your space project much larger?  Please call your applications engineer at 1-855-583-5353 or Nitinol@KelloggsResearchLabs.comto start the conversation.