Spacecraft design gets a boost with new origami flower-like patterns
Paul Arnold
contributing writer
Gaby Clark
scientific editor
Robert Egan
associate editor
The ancient Japanese art of paper-folding, or origami, is already inspiring the design of the next generation of space vehicles, but now there's a new family of origami shapes that could make them even more compact and reliable.
Larry Howell at Brigham Young University and his colleagues have developed a new class of origami structures called bloom patterns that fold up flat and unfold like flower petals. These clever folding designs could also be used for other structures in space, such as telescopes and solar arrays.
Origami-based designs are perfect for spacecraft because they can be made to fold up for launch and then unfold or deploy to their full size in space or when they arrive at their destination. This ability to pack tightly not only makes missions cheaper to launch but also allows smaller payloads to easily hitch a ride on a rocket carrying another satellite.
However, existing origami patterns are not always easy to pack away and can be complex to unfold. The bloom patterns solve this by folding up flat, staying flat and then unfolding widely.
Bloom patterns were already known to exist, but the engineers at Brigham Young University realized they were part of a larger group of shapes that share the same features. They start as a flat, thin disk and unfold in one smooth motion to create a larger, curved three-dimensional shape that resembles a flower.
The team developed a mathematical model for how the bloom patterns work. As they describe in a paper in the Proceedings of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Â鶹ÒùÔºical and Engineering Sciences, they then built physical paper models and paper prototypes. All the shapes unfolded reliably, which is crucial because a single misfold could cause an entire space mission to fail. They also constructed bloom patterns out of other materials, such as 3D printed plastics.
Lift off for new ideas
As the scientists explain in their paper, the research is a launching pad for discoveries. "This work lays the foundation for future discovery and documentation of new origami bloom patterns, investigation of thickness accommodation and mechanical behaviors of bloom patterns, and their use as deployable systems in a variety of applications."
As well as improving how we design and deploy antennas, optical devices for satellites and other space equipment, these new origami bloom patterns also have more down-to-earth applications. They could be used to create portable, stackable structures for temporary shelters, pop-up architecture, or even parts of robotics that need to expand or contract.
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More information: Zhongyuan Wang et al, Bloom patterns: radially expansive, developable and flat-foldable origami, Proceedings of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Â鶹ÒùÔºical and Engineering Sciences (2025).
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