Deployable Root Stiffness Mechanism for Tubular Slit Booms and Method for Increasing the Bending and Torsional Stiffness of a Tubular Slit Boom

摘要

A deployable root stiffness mechanism and method increases the bending and torsional stiffness and strength of a tubular slit boom while allowing the slit boom to be flattened and rolled to a compact stowage volume. The slit booms may be flattened and rolled into a compact cylindrical stowage volume and once released, elastically and immediately deploy from the rolled stowed configuration to the final structural tube shape. An embodiment of the disclosed apparatus comprises a base member which is engaging contact with a bottom surface of the tubular slit boom and a reaction member which translates along the base member as the tubular slit boom transitions between the storage configuration to the deployed configuration and between the deployed configuration to the storage configuration. The reaction member provides an opposing reactive force to a load conveyed through the thin-wall construction of the boom. The method provides a means for increasing the bending and torsional stiffness and strength of a tubular slit boom by reacting external loads through the boom walls into a structure which generally conforms to the shape of the boom as it is deployed.

主权项

1. In a spacecraft having a tubular slit boom attached to the spacecraft by a structural interface, wherein the tubular slit boom comprises a thin-wall construction and the tubular slit boom has a storage configuration in which at least a first portion of the tubular slit boom is flattened and configured into a stowage volume and wherein the tubular slit boom has a deployed configuration in which at least a second portion of the tubular slit boom is extended to assume a tubular shape, a root stiffness mechanism comprises:
a base member which is engaging contact with a bottom surface of the tubular slit boom; and a reaction member which provides an opposing reactive force to a load conveyed through the thin-wall construction of the tubular slit boom as the base member as the tubular slit boom transitions from the storage configuration to the deployed configuration.