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Art of origami leads to lightbulb moment

In their attempt to prototype a reusable crew module for spaceflight, undergraduates Anastasia Muszynski, Dawson Beatty and Andrew Pfefer found unexpected inspiration in the art of origami and received vital support from the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP). 

Andrew Pfefer, Anastasia Muszynski and Dawson Beatty pose with their origami devices
Andrew Pfefer, Anastasia Muszynski and Dawson Beatty pose with their inflatable, collapsable device with origami-type folds
Anastasia Muszynski, Andrew Pfefer and Dawson Beatty work with their origami device
Anastasia Muszynski works with inflatable origami device

Muszynski’s passion for paper folding helped the team solve the complex challenge of engineering a module that can be tightly folded for transport and inflated in space—a technique called Miura. The concept proved to be what she remembers as “one of those creative ideas that just might work.”

Muszynski, Beatty and Pfefer worked on Project Miura under the mentorship of Brian Sanders of the Colorado Space Grant Consortium and received funding from UROP in the form of individual student grants.

Each year UROP provides funding to support hundreds of student-faculty partnerships for projects in all fields of study. Explore opportunities at the UROP website.