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# Help NASA Design a Radiation Shield That Folds Like Origami
- URL: https://hyperallergic.com/help-nasa-blast-off-into-deep-space-through-crowdsourced-origami-ideas/
- Published: 2017-07-26T17:15:29.000Z
- Updated: 2025-11-24T16:12:09.000Z
- Description: NASA is launching an idea challenge for a compact radiation shield that would protect spacecraft and the astronauts within.
- Author: Allison Meier
- Tags: News, NASA, origami, Science, #wp, #wp-post, #image-position-hidden, #Import 2025-11-24 07:30(2016, 2017, part 3)

![Origami rocket (photo by the author for Hyperallergic)](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2017/07/origamirocket01.jpg)

Origami rocket (photo by the author for Hyperallergic)

Through its [Tournament Lab](https://www.nasa.gov/coeci/ntl?ref=hyperallergic.com), NASA is making crowdsourcing a part of the future of space travel. Following competitions on an array of space problems, including [robot arm architecture](https://www.nasa.gov/feature/robot-arm-architecture-challenge/?ref=hyperallergic.com), a [3D printed Mars habitat](https://hyperallergic.com/208564/nasa-launches-2-25m-design-competition-to-3d-print-habitats-for-mars/), and [delivering astronaut email](https://www.nasa.gov/content/astronaut-email-challenge?ref=hyperallergic.com), NASA is now looking for proposals on how to fold a radiation shield like origami.

As Nicola Davis [reported for the Guardian](https://www.theguardian.com/science/2017/jul/20/nasa-needs-you-space-agency-to-crowdsource-origami-designs-for-shield?ref=hyperallergic.com), the idea challenge is launching today [through Freelancer](https://www.freelancer.com/contest/nasa/about?ref=hyperallergic.com), an online outsourcing marketplace. On Freelancer, NASA [states](https://www.freelancer.com/contest/nasa/about?ref=hyperallergic.com) that the challenge is to “develop a 3D folding concept for radiation shielding used to cover human habitation sections of spacecraft.” These shields would protect spacecraft, and the astronauts within, from [galactic cosmic rays](https://www.nasa.gov/exploration/humanresearch/elements/research%5Finfo%5Felement-srpe.html?ref=hyperallergic.com) (GCRs), and are essential for deep space travel. With storage space at a premium onboard these proposed vessels, such shields would need to be as compact as possible.

And that’s where the origami comes in. Perhaps most familiar to people as a foldable, and sometimes frustrating, art, its skill in reducing a sheet of paper to a dense maze of mountains and valleys has wider applications. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory previously explored how to use the craft of paper-folding[ to store solar panels for space travel](https://hyperallergic.com/145135/nasa-explores-the-potential-of-origami-in-space/), and physicist, origami expert, and former NASA scientist [Robert J. Lang](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert%5FJ.%5FLang?ref=hyperallergic.com) has experimented with its use in things like [automotive airbags. ](http://www.langorigami.com/articles/technology?ref=hyperallergic.com)

Outsourcing ideas to the gig economy isn’t as great as NASA hiring those minds, yet it is a creative way for the organization to innovate, even as funding cuts put into question [whether deep space travel is a possibility](https://arstechnica.com/science/2017/07/nasa-finally-admits-it-doesnt-have-the-funding-to-land-humans-on-mars/?ref=hyperallergic.com). Meanwhile, NASA has more upcoming initiatives you can join, such as [making observations as a citizen scientist](https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2017/nasa-invites-you-to-become-a-citizen-scientist-during-us-total-solar-eclipse?ref=hyperallergic.com) during the August 21 solar eclipse, and [suggesting patch designs](https://www.freelancer.com/contest/nasa/?ref=hyperallergic.com) for a mission to test the limits of 3D recyclability.