Samara Aerospace has been awarded a Phase I contract under NASA’s Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program to advance its Multifunctional Structures for Attitude Control (MSAC)—a cutting- edge technology designed to revolutionize spacecraft attitude control and jitter mitigation using intelligent, multifunctional deployable structures.
The award supports Samara’s effort to demonstrate and quantify MSAC’s active noise—canceling capabilities on a two-panel test platform, and to validate its scalability across spacecraft ranging from 50 to 500 kilograms through advanced simulation.
Control MSAC represents a step-change in spacecraft agility and stability. By embedding distributed strain actuators into deployable structures like solar arrays, MSAC dynamically responds to disturbances to cancel jitter, enhance stability, and enable large-angle slews. This approach significantly reduces settling time for high-precision payloads, benefiting missions involving ultra-stable imaging, laser communication, and fine-pointing instruments.
Unlike conventional reaction wheels or control moment gyros, MSAC’s control scales with spacecraft size, as larger deployable surfaces offer greater control torque—simultaneously enabling increased power generation and enhanced agility in a single, integrated system.
Samara’s in-space innovation is matched by growth on the ground. The company recently relocated to its new headquarters in San Francisco, expanding its build and test facilities to 11,200 square feet. This move marks a major milestone in Samara’s trajectory, allowing for expanded manufacturing, accelerated hiring, and the infrastructure needed to scale flight hardware delivery.
With applications ranging from NASA deep-space observatories to commercial satellite constellations and optical comms networks, MSAC addresses the growing need for low- jitter, high-agility spacecraft platforms. With this SBIR Phase I award, Samara is paving the way for MSAC’s integration into the next generation of space missions.
