Abstract

The AIAA Spacecraft Structures Conference addresses recent research findings and newly proposed concepts concerning the emerging class of large-scale, lightweight structures that is enabling a paradigm shift in design, launch, and operation of spaceflight systems, since spacecraft with structural characteristics optimized for operation in space and for the ability to collapse into small packages for launch can yield order-of-magnitude reductions in mass, launch volume, and lifecycle cost, as compared to large spaceflight systems.