NASA JPL - Starshade

I spent the summer of my junior year (2016) in Pasadena, CA at JPL working with the Starshade Technology Project team. Starshade is a 22m external occulter that launches with a space telescope to image exoplanets. As a large deployable structure, Starshade can be difficult to grasp visually, specifically how individual components move during deployment. So with the other two summer interns, I designed various configuration models that were designed to fit on a conference table as an engineering design tool.

This may sound like a simple task, but I think our greatest achievement was making our final models after a single iteration of 3D printing key features which we used to characterize process tolerance. Our petal unfurling deployable model also uses a lot of simple everyday parts, like earring studs as hinges! (Yes, it was an odd purchase order to submit.)

There were quite a few requested engineering models, which were meant to serve as a communication & design tool for scientists and engineers.

Here are some satisfying gifs of our 3D prints & laser cutting in process…