Patent — available for licensing
SHEAth-based Rollable LEnticular-Shaped and Low-Stiction (SHEARLESS) Composite Booms
A NASA invention available to explore as a licensing opportunity.
About this technology
Overview
NASA's Langley Research Center has developed the SHEARLESS composite boom with a final cross-section shape that is lenticular and is flexible enough to allow elastic flattening and subsequent coiling around a cylindrical reel / drum. The torsional stiffness of the structure is also greatly increased and becomes two orders of magnitude larger than that of the individual tape-spring components alone. The innovation enables a lightweight structure that can be stowed on a reel without appreciable shear stresses developing in its constitutive composite parts. This allows for unprecedentedly small coiling diameters for the total thickness of the structure, which can enable highly compact designs such as those required in CubeSat/small satellite applications.