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US 4,482,900 AGranted
Deployable folded antenna apparatus
AssigneeThe United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Air Force
InventorsFrank V. Bilek, David N. Buell
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An antenna apparatus for use in space which is foldable into a small package for storage in a space vehicle. The antenna apparatus utilizes a plurality of hinged members and diagonal tapes forming parallelogram frames, two opposite sides of which are hinged at the center to fold the frames in a given plane. Similar frames are hinged on the first frames in a second plane whereby a plurality of cubes are formed when all are unfolded.
Claims10
A deployable, folded antenna apparatus comprising in combination:
- a plurality of box truss elements arranged in rows and columns, each of said box truss elements comprising a cube unit,
- said cube unit comprising in combination:
- a vertical member at each corner of said cube unit,
- top and bottom surface members which are connected respectively between adjacent vertical members to form a cube, said top and bottom surface members are foldable about their midpoints, and,
- diagonal tapes connected between diagonally opposite corners of adjacent vertical members, said diagonal tapes being coilable at their midpoints, each cube unit being foldable about the midpoint of each top and bottom surface members to form a stowed truss unit, said stowed truss unit being deployable to form a box truss structure, said box truss structure providing a rigid support base.
2 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.