Boom Deployment Mechanism

As a research assistant for Cornell Space Structures Lab, I am working on a boom deployment mechanism that can deploy an ultra lightweight boom from a CubeSat without the boom buckling or blossoming. To do this, I have designed two rollers that rotate together in with high friction to pull out the boom with a constant tension. The rollers are coupled together, rotated by one stepper motor, which can be set to start and stop to bend the boom into the desired shape at the exit of the deployment mechanism.