An approach to designing products based on adapting patterns and behaviors from origami is presented. The approach is illustrated by showing its capability for developing mechanism applications for aerospace-based systems. Origami has several attributes that are sought after in aerospace designs, such as deployability, stowability, and portability. The origami-adapted design process seeks to facilitate designers in reliably adapting origami into useful products that achieve desirable attributes. The origamiadapted design process is illustrated and tested using three examples of preliminary design: an origami bellows to protect the drill shafts of a Mars Rover, an expandable habitat for the International Space Station, and a deployable parabolic antenna for space and earth communication systems. Each of these examples starts with an origami fold pattern and modifies it to fulfill specific needs for an aerospace-based product.

The use of origami-based bellows is of interest in fields where traditional metal bellows are incapable of meeting compression, mass, or flexibility constraints. Metal bellows are often used in space applications but frequently complicate spacecraft design. Origami-based bellows capable of meeting design constraints while adequately shielding sensitive spacecraft parts may be advantageous to space mechanism design. The design and testing of a highly compressible origami bellows for harsh environments is described. Several origami patterns were evaluated and the Kresling fold pattern was designed to meet constraints and selected for use in the bellows design. Origami bellows were prototyped in five different materials and tested in fatigue, thermal cycling, ablation, and radiation. Tested bellows show good fatigue life exceeding 100,000 cycles for some materials and resilience to potential harsh environmental conditions such as thermal cycling, abrasion, and high radiation. The bellows can be designed to fit within a given inner and outer diameter and stroke length depending on the design requirements. The origami bellows shows promise for space application and as an adequate replacement for current metal bellows due to its high compressibility and low mass.The design, testing, and fabrication of an origami-based bellows for microgravity drilling is presented. The benefits of origami created an opportunity for application on NASA's Asteroid Redirect Mission (ARM) to protect sensitive parts from debris. Origami-based bellows were designed to fit spacial limitations and meet needed compression ratios. Designs have demonstrated high mass reductions, improved stroke length, greatly decreased stowed volume, improved flexibility, and reduced reaction forces in comparison with traditional metal bellows. Material and design testing demonstrated that a nylon-reinforced polyvinyl fluoride based bellows with an aramid fiber stitched seam is well suited for debris containment in space conditions. Various epoxies were able to maintain an adequate bond with polyvinyl fluoride below expected environmental temperature for bellows mounting to the ARM drill. Asymmetric compression of the bellows can occur at extreme low temperatures and is preventable by balancing stiffness within the structure. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS First and foremost, I would like to thank my wife Amy for her support during this research, including motivation, editing, revisions, and organization. I thank my children Adelyn and Bridger for being excited about "daddy's space work." This work was made possible through foresight and trust offered to a then middle school teacher from Larry Howell and Spencer Magleby. I thank them for providing funding to pursue this work and obtain graduate credentials. I thank my mentor from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory Aaron Parness for the opportunity to mature this work for space applications and for his guidance and professional advice. Additionally, I thank Brian Jensen for him mentoring. I could not have accomplished this work w...

The ancient art of origami has several attributes that are desirable in the design of engineered products such as deployability, stowability, and flat sheet manufacturing. Origami-adapted design aspires to transform the characteristics of an origami paper model into a usable product while maintaining functionality. Engineers have managed to design several origami-adapted products that are innovative in their respective fields. Despite the existence of these origami-adapted products, the process of origami-adapted design is still not well understood. This research seeks to develop an understanding of the origami-adapted design process, the steps involved, and the necessary tools with the goal of promoting the future development of additional origami-adapted products.

A basic understanding of the production of sound waves can be obtained by studying standing waves and resonance frequencies. A vibrating string settles into a steady, standing wave pattern when it is driven at one of its resonance frequencies. The resonance frequencies depend on the string’s length and the tension applied to the string. Similarly the resonance frequencies of tubes are determined by the tube’s length and whether the ends are open or closed. In a series of hands-on demos, we explore the factors that influence the creation of standing waves by exciting the resonances of strings, tubes, rods, a metal plate, slinky, and a wine glass. These simple models provide insight into how musical instruments produce sound.