THE OBJECTIVE OF THIS PROJECT IS TO CREATE SURFACES THAT CAN MORPH INTO ARBITRARY THREE-DIMENSIONAL SHAPES BY TRANSITIONING BETWEEN VARIOUS STABLE ORIGAMI CONFIGURATIONS. FURTHERMORE STRUCTURAL SENSING AND ACTUATION CAPABILITIES WILL BE INTEGRATED THROUGH THE DESIGN OF METAMATERIAL SHEETS (I.E. SHEETS WITH AN ENGINEERED ARCHITECTURE THAT CONVEYS PROPERTIES NOT USUALLY FOUND IN NATURE). THE DEVELOPMENT OF MULTISTABLE ORIGAMI STRUCTURES COMPOSED OF SMART AND RESPONSIVE MATERIALS WILL ENABLE TUNING THE MORPHOLOGY OF SURFACES IN RESPONSE TO EXTERNAL ENVIRONMENTAL STIMULI (E.G. TEMPERATURE OR PRESSURE CHANGES LIGHT ETC). THE FINAL GOAL WILL BE THE ABILITY TO CREATE AUTONOMOUS MORPHING SPACE STRUCTURES WITH INTRINSIC CONTROL OF THE STRUCTURAL FRAME AND ITS PRE-PROGRAMMABLE DEPLOYABILITY. WITH THESE ADVANCEMENTS IN PLACE FOR EXAMPLE LARGE DEFORMABLE MIRRORS AND LENSES COULD BE POINTED IN DIFFERENT DIRECTIONS OR UNDERGO PRECISE CHANGES IN FOCAL LENGTH. IT COULD BE POSSIBLE TO STEER SOLAR SAILS IN THE ABSENCE OF ELECTRICAL CONTROLLERS OR CAUSE EXPANDABLE HABITATS TO SPRING INTO SHAPE. THE TA 12 TECHNOLOGY ROADMAP STATES THAT THESE APPLICATIONS WOULD BENEFIT FROM FURTHER SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH. THE COMBINATION OF ORIGAMI AND SMART METAMATERIALS COULD ALSO BE APPLIED TO THE DESIGN OF SMALL CUBE SATELLITES THAT UNDERGO SHAPE CHANGES IN ORDER TO DISPENSE A PAYLOAD. THE MULTI-FUNCTIONAL NATURE OF THE METAMATERIALS WOULD ALSO PROVIDE CONSIDERABLE MASS AND VOLUME SAVINGS. SINCE CHANGING THE SHAPE OF A STRUCTURE CAN LEAD TO CHANGES IN ITS MECHANICAL PROPERTIES THE MECHANICAL RESPONSE TO STATIC AND DYNAMIC LOADS (SUCH AS IMPACTS AND VIBRATIONS) COULD BE TUNED TO PERFORM DIFFERENTLY UNDER VARIOUS ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITIONS. THE FIRST STEPS TOWARD DESIGNING SPACE STRUCTURES OF THIS NATURE ARE TO UNDERSTAND THE PRINCIPLES THAT GUIDE THE KINEMATIC BEHAVIOR OF MULTISTABLE ORIGAMI STRUCTURES: TO DEVELOP "SHAPE-MORPHING BUILDING BLOCKS" THAT CAN BE USED TO OBTAIN PRECISE SURFACE CURVATURES FROM A MODULAR DESIGN APPROACH; AND TO LEARN HOW TO EMBED CONSTRAINTS INTO THE ORIGAMI CREASE PATTERNS IN ORDER TO ENABLE SNAPTHROUGH BEHAVIOR BETWEEN STABLE STATES. MY HYPOTHESIS IS THAT TESSELLATIONS (I.E. TILINGS) OF DIFFERENT MULTISTABLE UNIT CELLS ARE THE KEY TO OBTAINING THIS BEHAVIOR. BY APPLYING APPROPRIATE LOCAL KINEMATIC CONSTRAINTS (FOR EXAMPLE SURROUNDING ORIGAMI UNIT CELLS THAT UNDERGO LARGE AREA CHANGES WITH UNIT CELLS THAT CONTRACT LESS) ARBITRARY OUT-OF-PLANE DISPLACEMENTS CAN BE OBTAINED FROM AN INITIALLY PLANAR ALBEIT INHOMOGENEOUS STRUCTURE. THE PROJECT WILL HAVE FOUR MAIN COMPONENTS: (I) COMPUTATIONAL MODELING OF ORIGAMI UNIT CELLS; (II) DESKTOP-SCALED EXPERIMENTS IN ACTUATION METHODS IN 3D-PRINTED METAMATERIAL SHEETS; (III) DESIGNING ORIGAMI TESSELLATIONS THAT RESULT IN DESIRED SURFACES WHEN FOLDED; AND (IV) THE FABRICATION AND CHARACTERIZATION OF THE TESSELLATED DESIGNS. THE FUNDAMENTAL FINDINGS OBTAINED FROM THE PROJECT WILL GUIDE THE DEVELOPMENT OF MORPHING STRUCTURES FOR SPECIFIC SPACE APPLICATIONS SUCH AS THE ONES OUTLINED IN THE NASA TA 12 TECHNOLOGY ROADMAP. ACCORDING TO THE TA 12 ROADMAP EXISTING SPACE STRUCTURES DO NOT INCORPORATE SENSING AND OTHER FUNCTIONS INTO THEIR STRUCTURE. INSTEAD THESE FUNCTIONS ARE PROVIDED BY DISCRETE SYSTEMS THAT ARE ADDED ONTO THE STRUCTURE WHICH INCREASES MASS AND VOLUME. ADDITIONALLY THE ROADMAP STATES THAT INTEGRATION OF THESE SUBSYSTEMS IS AT A LOW TECHNOLOGY READINESS LEVEL AND COULD HAVE A TRANSFORMATIVE EFFECT ON DEEP SPACE AND NEAR-EARTH MISSIONS. THE COMBINATION OF MULTISTABLE ORIGAMI DESIGNS AND METAMATERIALS THAT INTEGRATE STRUCTURAL SENSING AND ACTUATION CAPABILITIES COULD LEAD TO A NEW GENERATION OF SPACE STRUCTURES