Undergraduate student Ilyes Krida from the University of Houston began a summer research experience at Stanford’s Morphing Space Structures Lab under the mentorship of NASA MIRO IDEAS² Center Co-I Dr. Manan Arya.
His work explores compact, deployable antenna reflectors for space applications, which are vital for spacecraft communication and sensing, with performance improving as the diameter increases. These reflectors, designed with curved-crease origami techniques, offer a novel method for stowing large parabolic surfaces during launch and deploying them in orbit.
Ilyes investigated origami-inspired parabolic thin-shell reflectors that can be compactly stowed and deployed in space. While these curved-crease designs enable solid-surface reflectors, they also introduce multi-stability, where fold lines create unwanted intermediate states.
Using high-fidelity finite element simulations, Ilyes modeled the “pop-through” behavior of shells and explored design strategies to suppress intermediate stable states, advancing the reliability of deployable space antennas.
A paper on this work will be presented at AIAA SciTech 2026.