March 23, 2013
Robert Hoyt, Tethers Unlimited, Inc., SpiderFab: Process for On-Orbit Construction of Kilometer-Scale Apertures
By using 3D printing and robotics Spiderfab will be able to take raw material and extrude tethers, rods and cylinders and connectors that look like the connectors for assembling a tent. This kind of system can be used to launch a larger starshade than one that is just built and packed into a rocket.
The largest starshade that can go into a Delta shroud is 64 meters across. The SpiderFab would have twice the diameter. It would enable a telescope to look closer to a star for exoplanets and would enable the James Webb telescope to effectively look for exoplanets. So the Terrestrial planet finder telescope would not be needed. The system would enable the same cost and launches to find 16 times the exoplanets for the $.
SpiderFab would also enable far larger space based solar power.
Currently, a significant fraction of the engineering cost and launch mass of space systems is required exclusively to enable the system to survive launch. This is particularly true for systems with physically large components, such as antennas, booms, and panels, which must be designed to stow for launch and then reliably deploy on orbit. Furthermore, the sizes of apertures and spacecraft structures are limited by the requirement to stow them within available launch fairings. Deployable structures and inflatable/rigidizable components have enabled construction of systems with scales of several dozen meters, but their packing efficiency is not sufficient to enable scaling to the kilometer-size baselines desired for applications such as long-baseline interferometry and sparse aperture sensing.
By using 3D printing and robotics Spiderfab will be able to take raw material and extrude tethers, rods and cylinders and connectors that look like the connectors for assembling a tent. This kind of system can be used to launch a larger starshade than one that is just built and packed into a rocket.
The largest starshade that can go into a Delta shroud is 64 meters across. The SpiderFab would have twice the diameter. It would enable a telescope to look closer to a star for exoplanets and would enable the James Webb telescope to effectively look for exoplanets. So the Terrestrial planet finder telescope would not be needed. The system would enable the same cost and launches to find 16 times the exoplanets for the $.
SpiderFab would also enable far larger space based solar power.
Currently, a significant fraction of the engineering cost and launch mass of space systems is required exclusively to enable the system to survive launch. This is particularly true for systems with physically large components, such as antennas, booms, and panels, which must be designed to stow for launch and then reliably deploy on orbit. Furthermore, the sizes of apertures and spacecraft structures are limited by the requirement to stow them within available launch fairings. Deployable structures and inflatable/rigidizable components have enabled construction of systems with scales of several dozen meters, but their packing efficiency is not sufficient to enable scaling to the kilometer-size baselines desired for applications such as long-baseline interferometry and sparse aperture sensing.
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