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  • iROSA stiffening

    From Snidely@21:1/5 to All on Mon Jun 28 00:18:59 2021
    I'm curious as to how the new arrays are stiffened, given that the
    "spine" had to unroll. The scissors deployment of the "heritage"
    arrays has a more obvious (to me) way to lock.

    I do know (from the comms) that there is a tensioning bolt. I'm
    guessing that it works one of two ways. The first is pulling out on
    the distal part of the spine which then locks like your knee does, and
    using a pulley/block to run the pulling cable back to the tensioning
    bolt. The second would be something like how I learned the BRT works,
    by putting a twist on the joints and through that locking up the
    joints; this doesn't require a return pulley/block.

    Has anyone here found the actual method?

    /dps

    --
    "Inviting people to laugh with you while you are laughing at yourself
    is a good thing to do, You may be a fool but you're the fool in
    charge." -- Carl Reiner

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  • From JF Mezei@21:1/5 to Snidely on Mon Jun 28 11:45:13 2021
    On 2021-06-28 03:18, Snidely wrote:
    I'm curious as to how the new arrays are stiffened,

    They brought a few Playboy magazines to the ISS and the centerfold is
    shown to the solar array whenever it isn't stiff ennough :-)

    https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/news/changing-how-solar-power-rolls


    Their public document mention something simular to measuring tape. Can
    be rolled up, but once unrolled, wants to be straight because the metal
    as a natural curved shape. For ROSA, the equivalent of that measuring
    tape is apparanetly some carbon "tape" that wants to uncoils into a extended/straight position. as long as it wants to lenghten to slightly
    longer than the solar film in middle, that film will remain under a
    slight tension.

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  • From Snidely@21:1/5 to All on Mon Jun 28 19:09:53 2021
    JF Mezei noted that:
    On 2021-06-28 03:18, Snidely wrote:
    I'm curious as to how the new arrays are stiffened,

    They brought a few Playboy magazines to the ISS and the centerfold is
    shown to the solar array whenever it isn't stiff ennough :-)

    https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/news/changing-how-solar-power-rolls

    Thank you for the link.

    Their public document mention something simular to measuring tape. Can
    be rolled up, but once unrolled, wants to be straight because the metal
    as a natural curved shape. For ROSA, the equivalent of that measuring
    tape is apparanetly some carbon "tape" that wants to uncoils into a extended/straight position. as long as it wants to lenghten to slightly longer than the solar film in middle, that film will remain under a
    slight tension.

    During the unrolling, the tape at the outside edges of the rolls showed
    a distinct curl. It looked like some of it was white on one side and
    black on the other.

    /dps

    --
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    " Very much so, and I'd recommend the haggis wontons."
    -njm

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