US Patent Issued to United States of America as represented by the Administrator of NASA on Feb. 10 for "Deployable antenna reflector" (Virginia Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., Feb. 11 -- United States Patent no. 12,548,915, issued on Feb. 10, was assigned to United States of America as represented by the Administrator of NASA (Washington).

"Deployable antenna reflector" was invented by Juan M. Fernandez (Norfolk, Va.), Andrew F. Paddock (Newport News, Va.) and Kevin DeMarco (Yorktown, Va.).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "Self-deploying reflector array architectures include stacked multiple panels attached to a central panel by sets of heat actuated flexible hinges on their non-functional sides create surface of revolution, cylindrical and flat reflector arrays in accordance with panel curvature. Robotic in-space assembly of multiple smaller arrays al...