Spanning 200 ft. when fully extended, the ABLE Deployment Articulating mast, part of NASA JPL’s 1999 Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (STRM), stows in a 10-ft. canister. Four cable harnesses weighing 459lbs run along the mast to an outboard antenna. Since most of the canister is devoted to storing the retracted mast, space is at a premium. That’s where the cable-carrier makes a difference. The system’s Plastitrak^®-style carrier, molded from low-friction, UV-resistant Delrin, performs all the tasks specified by AEC-ABLE Engineering:

It operates in the vacuum and zero gravity of space; it protects the cables from damage while taking up little volume; and it bends in only one direction only. The latter allows predictable and controllable movement.