# A Morphing Deployable Mechanism for Re-Entry Capsule Aeroshell
## 6 Conclusions  
Flexible morphing deployable aerosols are increasingly emerging as novel and alternative concepts for the controlled re-entry and precise landing of space vehicles. In this work, a preliminary conceptual analysis of a novel shape-changing concept that can be packaged with an off-the-shelf 12U CubeSat was addressed. The deployment mechanism was controlled by a single translational actuator that dictated the overall deployment of the mechanism and, once deployed, the aeroshell shape could be adapted via an SMA-based actuation. Strain recovery in the SMA actuators were a result of thermally induced transformations that underwent against an external force. Such a strain recovery was converted into bending for the individual tabs by contributing to the aeroshell shape changes. Multi-body analyses and preliminary structural parametrization of SMA rods have provided guidelines and potential constraints for an actual implementation of the concept. A maximum of eight ribs was chosen to ensure maximum shape accuracy, allowing the aeroshell to decelerate through entry. After investigating the behavior of the mechanism through a multibody model, it was found that the system deployment is strongly dependent on the components' geometry, hinges' positions, and assembly. Deploying high-precision geometry could enable guidance maneuvers to be carried out by the individual control of morphing flaps providing enhanced versatility, which was otherwise not achievable with the current rigid decelerators. Such a controlled deployment and retraction of the system can provide also an appealing feature in view of repeatable and reliable testing.  
The use of an SMA material for actuation, due to the thermal inertia of the material, certainly limits the proposed concept to a low-frequency band, which is, however, compatible for the proposed employment (landing phases). As a next step, further analyses  
Figure 14: Tip displacement (**top**) and von Mises stress in the beam and in the SMA rods (**bottom**) vs. iteration step.  
involving both the evaluation of thermal and aerodynamic loads and the assessment of the aeroelastic stability will be assessed, along with possible control strategies driving the systems to minimize the differences between the actual trajectories detected by on board instrumentation and the nominal ones. Once full aerostructural analysis and numerical validation of the small-scale model is achieved, a demonstrator of a morphing aeroshell will be fabricated at CIRA for functional testing.  
Conceptualization, I.D. and C.V.; methodology, I.D., S.A., W.R.S. and C.V.; software, I.D. and C.V.; validation, I.D. and C.V.; formal analysis, I.D., S.A. and W.R.S.; investigation, I.D. and C.V.; resources, I.D. and C.V.; data curation, I.D. and C.V.; writing--original draft preparation, I.D.; writing--review and editing, I.D., C.V. and A.C.; visualization, I.D.; supervision, I.D.; project administration, I.D. and C.V.; funding acquisition, I.D. and C.V. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.  
This research is funded in part by a grant (PGR10074) from the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation (MAECI) in the framework of the first Executive Programme for Scientific and Technological Cooperation between the Government of the Italian Republic and the Government of the federal Republic of Brazil.  
Not applicable.  
The authors would like to acknowledge [PERSON], the Scientific Attache at Embassy of Italy in Brazil, for his guidance throughout the execution of the SPLASH project.  
The authors declare no conflict of interest.