The Technology

HIGH-STRAIN COMPOSITES

Opterus's proprietary carbon fiber materials sustain bending strains 3x higher than conventional composites. This enables structures that fold completely flat for launch and deploy into precision geometry in orbit —built on three pillars: high-strain composites, origamiinspired engineering, and resource-efficient manufacturing.

COLLAPSIBLE TUBULAR MAST (CTM)

The SSDS uses Opterus's flagship boom technology. CTM booms roll flat like a tape measure, pack into minimal volume, and deploy with high structural rigidity. The retractable design enables deploy-retract-redeploy cycles for in-flight trajectory correction.

THREE TECHNOLOGY PILLARS

Opterus's approach rests on three pillars: high-strain composites, origami-inspired engineering, and resourceefficient manufacturing. Their structures are designed to fold flat for launch using spiral wrapping and origami folding patterns, then unfurl into precision geometry in orbit. Mold-based manufacturing and CNC ply cutting keep production costs down while maintaining aerospace-grade quality.

RETRACTABLE ADVANTAGE

What sets the SSDS apart from previous solar sail systems — including NASA's ACS3 — is retractability. Opterus's design enables deploy-retract-redeploy cycles, allowing spacecraft to adjust sail geometry during flight for trajectory correction. This capability transforms solar sailing from a one-time deployment into a controllable propulsion system.

Context

NASA ACS3 REFERENCE

NASA's Advanced Composite Solar Sail System (ACS3) successfully deployed an 860-sq-ft solar sail in orbit in 2024. Opterus's SSDS builds on this momentum with retractable capability — a feature not available in ACS3's deploy-once architecture.

Applications

Deep space exploration (propellantless propulsion)
Solar weather monitoring & early warning
Asteroid reconnaissance missions
Orbital debris management
Rapidly deployable antennas & sensor platforms
Space domain awareness (DoD)

The Company

OPTERUS AT A GLANCE

Founded: 2015 by Dr. Thomas W. Murphey (formerly of AFRL/RVSV)
Facility: 25,000 sq ft — Loveland, Colorado
Team: 24 employees, vertically integrated
Revenue Growth: 418% (2019–2021)
Flight Heritage: 12+ deployments, 0 failures
Customers: NASA, DoD, Capella Space, Weather Stream
Certifications: AS9100, CMMC Level 3, DCAA
USAF SBIR: $1.25M for deployable structures

LEadership

Kiel Davis — President (ex-Honeybee Robotics, Blue Origin)‍
Dr. Thomas W. Murphey — Founder (AFRL/RVSV, PhDcomposites)‍
Dan Hunt — Director of Engineering‍
Drayton Browning — Engineering PM, SSDS Program

“The ability to deploy and retract a solar sail on command fundamentally changes what’s possible in propellantless propulsion.”

— Kiel Davis, President, Opterus Research and Development

Publications

Below is a list of publications written by members of our team at Optures.

Murphey, T. W., et al (2015). High Strain Composites. In 2nd AIAA Spacecraft Structures Conference (pp. 1–53). Kissimmee, FL.
Murphey, T. W., Peterson, M. E., and Grigoriev, M. M. (2015), “Large Strain Four-Point Bending of Thin Unidirectional Composites,” Journal of Spacecraft and Rockets, vol. 52, May 2015, pp. 882–895.
Murphey, T. W., et al (2013), “Four Point Bending of Thin Unidirectional Composite Laminas,” 54th AIAA/ASME/ASCE/AHS/ASC Structures, Structural Dynamics, and Materials Conference, Boston, MA.
Peterson, M. E., and Murphey, T. W. (2013), “Large Deformation Bending of Thin Composite Tape Spring Laminates,” 54th AIAA/ASME/ASCE/AHS/ASC Structures, Structural Dynamics, and Materials Conference, Boston, MA.
Murphey, T. W., et al (2011), “Nonlinear elastic constitutive modeling of large strains in carbon fiber composite flexures,” 16th International Conference on Composite Structures, A.J.M. Ferreira, ed., Porto, Portugal: FEUP.
Sanford, G. E., Biskner, A., and Murphey, T. W. (2010), “Large Strain Behavior of Thin Unidirectional Composite Flexures,” 51st AIAA/ASME/ASCE/AHS/ASC Structures, Structural Dynamics, and Materials Conference, Orlando, FL.
Murphey, T. W. (2009), “Large Strain Composite Materials In Deployable Space Structures,” 17th International Conference on Composite Materials, Edinburgh, UK: The British Composites Society.
Murphey, T. W., et al (2007), “A Test Method to Assess the Foldability of Flexible Structural Materials,” 48th AIAA/ASME/ASCE/AHS/ASC Structures, Structural Dynamics, and Materials Conference, Honolulu, HI. Pollard, E. L., and Murphey, T. W. (2006), “Development of Deployable Elastic Composite Shape Memory Alloy Reinforced (DECSMAR) Structures,” 47th AIAA/ASME/ASCE/AHS/ASC Structures, Structural Dynamics, and Materials Conference, Newport, RI.
Murphey, T. W., et al (2001), “Some micromechanics considerations of the folding of rigidizable composite materials,” 42nd AIAA Structures, Structural Dynamics, and Materials Conference, Seattle, WA.