Ridgeline

A deployable solar wing that folds to the footprint of a laptop and opens to a metre of panel. Four rigid segments ride on a single continuous hinge with a detented stop at full extension, so it stands on its own in wind without a frame or guy lines.

The design work was mostly the hinge: a friction profile that holds any angle by hand, survives a few thousand cycles, and never needs a tool. Everything else folds around it.