Collapsible Origami Flasher

Whereas the application of a tensile force makes the structure revert to its natural flat form.

Collapsible origami flasher. Following folding the structure had an approximate area of 5000 mm 2 associated with a 94 reduction in its surface area. That s way too big to fit in a rocket so nasa has developed a way of folding it like you would origami for launch. Follow their lead and make your own paper origami model of starshade s inner disk optical shield following the steps below.

In recent years origami fold patterns known as flashers have been investigated for their ability to efficiently pack deployable surfaces. This model was designed by chris palmer and myself and is based on the twist folding. You can find the diagrams for this.

Intermediate how to fold the new four square flasher x which was designed by leo gustafson and jeremy shafer during a zoom tutoring session. The flasher in its deployed state can be folded by applying a compressive force to the opposing edges. The multiple layer folding process was shown to be effective.

In fact nasa brought in origami experts to help create the perfect design. The purpose of my research was to explore the application of curved folding in designing rigid foldable deployable mechanisms.