Did you know that sometimes, to reach for the stars, we have to think really cleverly about how to fold things up?

Imagine wanting to send something huge—something the size of a baseball field—all the way into space! But rockets are only about 5 metres wide at their biggest. So how do you fit something so large into something so small? The Answer: Origami!

Origami is the ancient Japanese art of paper folding, used to create beautiful paper sculptures for hundreds of years. But today, it’s doing more than making paper cranes—it’s helping scientists and engineers at places like NASA design the spacecraft of the future.

Because many space structures need to be big—but made from thin, lightweight materials—origami is perfect. It provides the math and folding rules needed to take a large sheet and fold it down really small.

Real Origami in Space

Take the solar panels on the International Space Station (ISS)—they use a zig-zag folding pattern inspired by origami. Even the Mars Phoenix lander used origami techniques to fold its solar arrays.

And now? NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab is working on one of the most exciting origami projects ever: The Starshade

What Is the Starshade?

The Starshade is a huge device that helps telescopes take pictures of exoplanets—planets that orbit stars outside our solar system. But here’s the problem: these planets are very hard to see because the stars they orbit are so much brighter.

It’s like trying to take a photo of someone standing in front of a blinding spotlight—you can’t see them clearly!

That’s why scientists invented the Starshade. It works like a giant space sun-blocker that flies into position in front of a star. By blocking the starlight, it lets a telescope behind it clearly see the much fainter planet next to it.

Fold Big, Fly Small

Remember, the Starshade is about the size of a baseball field—but it has to launch inside a rocket only a few meters wide. So how do they do it?

Origami again!

Engineers use special crease patterns and math equations to figure out exactly how to fold the Starshade into a compact package. Once in space, it unfolds—automatically—and with millimeter accuracy!

Then, using tiny thrusters, it moves into just the right position between the telescope and the star. From there, it helps capture clear, amazing images of faraway worlds.

Fun Fact

Origami’s folding rules are so useful that scientists are even using them to design foldable medical stents and airbags!