Radially-deploying solar panels?

[River Crab]

In recent NASA media I've been seeing more of those radially-deploying solar panels, like those on the Orion/MPCV SM:

What is the point of this design? I can't see why this is better than a rectangular panel, both in terms of complexity and surface area.

Is it something to do with the deployment mechanism? Or is it just NASA propaganda, trying to make their spacecraft look more modern? :lol:

 

[SpaceNut]

Well, if I were forced to guess I'd say deployment is a heck of alot easier/less complex than those complex, slow to deploy, oft to get stuck complex extendo rectangular panels. Those appear to be made like a oriental fan that can fold up and unfold easily, by design for the purpose of ease of deployment and reliability. the shape is simply because of the folding fan design (imagine unfolding a fan until it's all the way around to the beginning). One of the biggest advantages I see is virtually no deployment waste. A complex extension system is dead,wasted weight and space after deployment, so the lower you can keep the extension portion of the deployment system, the more efficient the design.

 

[PhantomCruiser]

That's an awfully funky looking docking adapter. Kind of cool, but funky looking none-the-less.

 

[n0mad23]

I'm guessing it's got to do primarily with deployment. Have a look at this video, and how the solar panels work around the 2:00 mark.

 

[N_Molson]

I'd say that this design is more efficient in terms of area. The circle is the geometrical plane figure that "packs" the most area around a single point.

 

[Wishbone]

This fan-like deployment routine makes me :facepalm: in recognition of work needed to set up the correct animation sequence in NTR stages... Thanks people for posting this stuff (seriously).