TENTGUILD ENGINEERING CO — National Aeronautics and Space Administration SBIR Phase I: H5

Description

Proposed is a portable guyed lattice column system with an erector mechanism to autonomously lift and uphold a payload, such as a solar array that needs to be elevated to provide continuous power near a Lunar pole.nbsp; Deployment proceeds from the base up, bay by bay, as the erector jacks each bay open while rising with the mast top where the bays yet to be opened are also stacked.nbsp; The guy wires are sequentially tightened as deployment proceeds.nbsp; Thus, full strength and stiffness are guaranteed for the mast sections already extended.nbsp; Reverse operation collapses the column. nbsp;The system is eminently scalable and adaptable.nbsp; Even with a fixed mast design, the number of bays and the anchoring geometry can be easily set to serve any of a variety of platform heights and payload weights.Developed are a conceptual design ready for hardware development for the mast-and-erector assembly, and a procedure to assist preliminary design for autonomous Lunar applications.nbsp;