A low mass, low-complexity technology called the Elastic Memory Composite Hinge may be able to stop the shock spacecraft components experience when heavy springs deploy such components as solar arrays and antennae. The EMCH, which contains carbon fiber strands and an epoxy resin, gets pliable as it heats up but is stiff when cool. Composite Technology Development, Inc., working with Air Force Research Lab’s Space Vehicles Directorate, designed, advanced, and tested the EMCH project, which is now being evaluated aboard the International Space Station, where it will remain for 18 months.
The Space Development Agency has already awarded contracts for most of the satellites that will form the beginnings of its massive planned constellation in low-Earth orbit, and on May 26 the agency awarded a deal for the ground systems to go with it. General Dynamics Mission Systems won the contract,…