• In a joint project with NASA, DLR successfully tested masts for deployable satellite structures in the aircraft hangar in Braunschweig.
• The long-term goal of the cooperation is to test the developed expandable structures in space.
• The first results will be presented at the 16th ECSSMET from March 23-25, 2021.

BRAUNSCHWEIG, Germany (DLR PR) — It took a large hangar to unfold the four ultra-lightweight booms, each made of carbon fibre-reinforced composites and 13.5 metres long, arranged in a cross shape. Researchers from the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR) tested the booms twice in the aircraft hangar at the DLR site in Braunschweig. In cooperation with the US space agency NASA, the aim is to develop deployable satellite structures that will make low-cost, small satellites more powerful in the future with deployable, miniaturised structures for power supply, communications and propulsion.