Concept of Inflatable Tensegrity for Large Space Structures

Abstract

The structural concept with inatable tensegrity is proposed for automatic assembly and maintenance by space manipulator robots to construct very large space structures as solar power satellite. The structural properties of the inatable module, which consists of in atable tube as compression element and cables, are investigated theoretically. Then, a scaled prototype of the module was demonstrated to evaluate storage efcient packaging and its deployment by in atable tubes. The results show that the inatable tensegrity module can avoid a complex manifold to connect the inatable tubes, and thus, the higher packaging capability is realized. Also, the deployment process of the inatable tensegrity module was depend on the air-o w rate for the in ation.