Abstract:

Artificial gravity is a crucial technology to enablelong-duration human space flight. However, a kilometer-scale rotating space structure is needed to generate artificial grav-ity at rotation rates that can be tolerated comfortably bycrew. Constructing such a structure with current technology would require many launches and significant in-space assembly.This work presents HERDS, High-Expansion-Ratio Deployable Structures, a hierarchical expansion mechanism that can deploya kilometer-scale structure from a single launch. HERDS lever-ages a hierarchical combination of a Kresling mechanism and a pop-up extending truss (PET), a novel variant of the scissormechanism. We show that HERDS designs achieve 4-11x betterbeam member aspect ratios than non-hierarchical Kresling or scissor mechanisms, resulting in a stiffer deployed structure. Furthermore, HERDS designs are shown in simulation to satisfy the necessary loading and structural constraints for supportingthe Lunar Gateway mission with a factor of safety greater than1.5 using existing launch vehicles. Our modeling and analysis is validated on a 1/10 scale prototype with a 50x expansion ratio.

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