Rigidizable Inflatable Get-Away-Special Experiment Space Flight Data Analysis

The Rigidizable Inflatable Get-Away-Special EXperiment (RIGEX) was run successfully on board STS-123 (Endeavor) in March 2008. RIGEX was built by graduate students at the Air Force Institute of Technology (AFIT) and returned there following the shuttle flight for post-flight analysis. The experiment’s objectives were to demonstrate in space the stowage, deployment, and rigidization techniques of carbon fiber composite inflatable rigidizable cylindrical booms. RIGEX was a Canister For All Payloads (CAPE) Space Shuttle cargo bay experiment designed to heat and inflate three 50.8 cm (20 in) long carbon fiber composite booms in a microgravity vacuum environment and measure both the structural characteristics and the deployment accuracy. Pressure, temperature, modal response, and position data were collected successfully on-orbit and are compared here to ground test data. This research is intended to help demonstrate the feasibility of using lightweight and low stowage volume (high packaging ratio) inflatable/rigidizable space structures for space mission applications.

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