SHEAth-based Rollable LEnticular-Shaped and Low-Stiction (SHEARLESS) Composite Booms

NASA's Langley Research Center has developed the SHEARLESS composite boom with a final cross-section shape that is lenticular and is flexible enough to allow elastic flattening and subsequent coiling around a cylindrical reel/drum. The torsional stiffness of the structure is also greatly increased and becomes two orders of magnitude larger than that of the individual tape-spring components alone.