SPRINGTIME leaves have given engineers a new way to build spacecraft antennas
that won’t get stuck when they are unfolded in orbit. The idea is to copy the
way that leaves are able to unfurl from their buds in one smooth movement.
Spacecraft antennas usually have to be folded to fit into their launcher. But
unfolding them in orbit is a risky business, as there’s usually no one on hand
to fix them if things go wrong. In 1991, the Galileo space probe failed to
unfurl an umbrella-like antenna because some of its 18 spokes got stuck. And
this is…
