Beyond Reach Technologies has develoepd Flarewing, a line of deployable solar arrays that provide high power while stowed in compact volumes for launch. Credit: Beyond Reach Technologies
SALT LAKE CITY — A startup has developed large deployable structures that could enable small satellites to generate large amounts of power.
Beyond Reach Technologies announced Aug. 24 its Flarewing line of rigid deployable structures. Those structures can be used to mount solar panels, enabling satellites to carry large arrays that can be tightly stowed for launch.
The Flarewing-S, the smallest of the three configurations of the product, has dimensions of 1 x 0.25 x 0.08 meters when stowed but deploys to provide a surface area of 30 square meters. That can provide between five and eight kilowatts of power, depending on the type of solar cells used. The largest, Flarewing-L, has dimensions of 6 x 0.29 x 0.13 meters when stowed but deploys to provide a surface area of 625 square meters, generating up to 200 kilowatts of power.
The concept for Flarewing has its roots in a NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts, or NIAC, study that co-founder and Chief Executive Mitch Fogelson worked on while a graduate student at Carnegie Mellon University. The NIAC study examined how to deploy kilometer-scale structures on a single launch.
