US Patent Issued to Purdue Research Foundation on Sept. 16 for "Transformable and in-orbit manufacturable space debris collector" (Indiana Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., Sept. 17 -- United States Patent no. 12,415,623, issued on Sept. 16, was assigned to Purdue Research Foundation (West Lafayette, Ind.).

"Transformable and in-orbit manufacturable space debris collector" was invented by Ran Dai (West Lafayette, Ind.), Yuto Tanaka (West Lafayette, Ind.) and Aditya Arjun Anibha (West Lafayette, Ind.).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A material collection system includes a planar structure, at least one actuator, and a plurality of pull cables. The planar structure includes a plurality of interconnected geometric panels having a plurality of holes therethrough, and each interconnection between two geometric panels defines a foldable coupling. The pl...