New technique for deploying long coilable booms, without blossoming effect, using a polymer joint

Abstract

In this short paper an original technique for deploying long coilable booms is reported. The technique consists in mechanically coupling consecutive layers, thus preventing them from uncoiling or sliding in respect to one another by using a soft polymer/adhesive applied on the annular surfaces of the coil or between layers. The polymer/adhesive not only can replace the compressing mechanism, which is usually used, which could be cumbersome and has to be manufactured, but also can eliminate the blossoming effect of the coil especially affecting long booms. The concept is validated through experiments which have shown that by using the proposed technique, deployment of long booms is possible without any compression mechanism at all, greatly simplifying the system. Moreover, the experiments have shown that it is also possible to design a system in which the polymer used as adhesive remains bonded to the main spindle and separates from the booms after deployment, which could be very useful for certain satellite applications where the booms can be used as electrodynamic tethers in which case it is preferable that their surface remains "clean" after deployment.