The proposed innovations are as follows: 1) a fully redundant electrical and mechanical motor/cable deployment assembly 2) a redundant motor/cable deployment assembly that is integrated and deploys…

This NASA SBIR Phase II contract was awarded to Tendeg LLC, a for-profit limited liability company, to develop innovative technologies for deploying large-scale space-based starshade systems. The key innovations include a redundant electrical and mechanical motor/cable deployment assembly, a redundant system integrated with a perimeter truss, and a truss strut mechanism to enable precise petal and truss deployment. These advancements aim to address the technical challenges of deploying a large (10-30 meter diameter) perimeter truss for a starshade, which was identified as a critical technology gap by NASA. The $749,898 contract was awarded on a Firm Fixed Price basis as a Small Business Set Aside. Tendeg leverages its expertise in developing advanced deployable antenna systems for small satellites to advance these starshade deployment capabilities for future NASA space missions.

The proposed innovations are as follows: 1) a fully redundant electrical and mechanical motor/cable deployment assembly 2) a redundant motor/cable deployment assembly that is integrated and deploys a perimeter truss for a starshade 3) a truss strut mechanism that allows petal and truss deployment and provides a stiff and repeatable support 4) a truss node light seal the suppressess all sun and starlight through a truss node with articulatinig truss elements and inner disk and petal interfaces. The significance and relevance of the proposed innovations is to meet the technical challenges of deploying a large scale perimeter truss (10-30M diameter) for a starshade. The stdt's "EXO-s final report" identified an open issue to "mature perimeter truss technology readiness." this is part of a defined starshade technology GAP s-5 that is titled "demonstrate inner disk deployment with optical shield." in the NASA JPL starshade design the petals are placed into their precise position by the deploying truss and truss strut. The truss also deploys the spiral wrapped inner disk and at the end tensions the precision spokes. If the truss was not able to fully deploy or meet the on-orbit load (deployment and deployed) and positioning requirements then the mission would fail. Obviously the truss deployment mechanism needs to be a robust and reliable system.