Southwest Research Institute Wins Two Prestigious R&D 100 Awards

SAN ANTONIO — August 24, 2026 — Two technologies developed by Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) have been named winners of the 2026 R&D 100 Awards, placing an ultra-rigid deployable spacecraft structure and an open-source rail transportation modeling platform among the year’s most significant technological innovations. The recognized systems address two very different engineering challenges: maintaining precision and stability in space, and determining how emerging propulsion technologies could reshape the U.S. rail network. SwRI’s Parallelogram Synchronized Truss Assembly, known as PaSTA, was developed to strengthen deployable solar arrays on spacecraft, while the Advanced Locomotive Technology and Rail Infrastructure Optimization System, or ALTRIOS, was created to model the technical, economic and environmental consequences of modernizing locomotive power systems. R&D World selected both technologies for awards traditionally regarded as one of the most competitive recognitions in industrial research and applied engineering.

The PaSTA technology emerged from a problem that is becoming increasingly important as spacecraft take on more complex tasks in orbit. Solar arrays must be large enough to generate substantial electrical power, yet compact enough to fit within a launch vehicle and robust enough to operate reliably after deployment. Conventional flexible solar arrays can be vulnerable to vibration and structural movement, creating difficulties for spacecraft that must point accurately or approach another vehicle. Those challenges are especially serious during docking, servicing and refueling missions, when even small unwanted motions can interfere with guidance systems and mechanical interfaces. PaSTA is designed to provide the stiffness required for these maneuvers without eliminating the ability of the solar array to fold into a compact launch configuration.

At the heart of PaSTA is a patented arrangement of interconnected elements organized into a truss-like framework. The geometry allows the structure to lie flat against the spacecraft during launch, when space and mechanical clearance are limited. After the spacecraft reaches orbit, the elements deploy and synchronize into a three-dimensional support assembly that reinforces the solar array. By distributing loads across multiple connected members, the truss increases resistance to bending, twisting and vibration. This is a critical distinction from a simple hinged panel: PaSTA is intended to transform a lightweight, foldable structure into a significantly more rigid load-bearing system after deployment. The technology was patented in 2025, and its development was led by SwRI Institute Engineer Randy Rose and Ryan Rickerson, manager of the organization’s Electromechanical Systems Section.

SwRI developed PaSTA in response to requirements for the Astroscale U.S. Provisioner, a refueling spacecraft being built, integrated and tested by SwRI for the U.S. Space Force. The spacecraft is expected to perform precision-pointing and docking operations with other vehicles in orbit. During those operations, the solar array cannot behave like a loosely supported appendage, because structural vibrations could propagate through the spacecraft and disturb its orientation or the accuracy of its approach. A stiffer array can help the spacecraft maintain control while its propulsion, navigation and docking systems work together. Rickerson described PaSTA as an idea that began on a whiteboard and progressed into flight hardware, illustrating how a mechanical concept can move from early geometry studies to a system intended for demanding space applications.

The importance of PaSTA extends beyond a single spacecraft mission. Future orbital platforms may need to service satellites, transfer propellant, assemble large structures or maneuver close to other vehicles without relying on astronauts. Such spacecraft will require high-performance power systems, but increasing the size of solar arrays can also increase flexibility, mass and susceptibility to dynamic disturbances. A deployable truss offers a possible way to manage that engineering trade-off. Its members can remain compact during launch while providing greater stiffness in orbit, potentially allowing designers to support larger energy-generating surfaces without adding a conventional rigid frame for the entire array. The approach could therefore contribute to spacecraft that are more capable while remaining compatible with existing launch constraints.

The second SwRI-recognized technology, ALTRIOS, focuses on a terrestrial system that is equally complex: the American freight rail network. Rail operators, energy planners and policymakers are examining alternatives to conventional locomotive propulsion, including batteries, hydrogen and biofuels. However, evaluating those alternatives requires more than comparing the efficiency of individual engines. New propulsion systems can affect train weight, refueling or recharging schedules, route planning, infrastructure requirements, operating costs and the amount of cargo that can be moved. ALTRIOS was developed as an integrated, open-source platform capable of examining these interactions across individual trains, entire corridors and long-term national scenarios.

ALTRIOS combines several layers of analysis that are often treated separately. It includes models for locomotive power systems and energy storage, physics-based simulations of individual trains, dispatch modeling and high-level scheduling and routing tools. The platform can use real-world rail infrastructure and operating conditions to estimate how a particular technology would perform over a route and across an extended period. By simulating train movements, grades, loads, energy consumption and infrastructure limitations, it can help reveal consequences that may not be apparent from laboratory efficiency figures alone. A battery-powered locomotive, for example, might perform well on a short route but require substantial charging infrastructure or operational changes on a longer corridor. ALTRIOS is designed to make those system-level effects visible.

The platform can evaluate hydrogen, biofuels, batteries and other energy technologies across the United States over periods spanning decades. That long time horizon is important because transportation infrastructure is expensive and slow to change. A decision about locomotive replacement may influence fueling facilities, electric-grid demand, maintenance practices and route schedules for many years. An open-source model also allows researchers, agencies, rail companies and members of the public to examine assumptions, test alternative scenarios and compare outcomes. Rather than presenting a single answer about which propulsion technology should replace diesel, ALTRIOS provides a framework for investigating where different technologies may be most practical and what investments they would require.

SwRI developed ALTRIOS in collaboration with the National Laboratory of the Rockies, BNSF Railway, The University of Texas at Austin and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. The project was funded by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency—Energy through the LOCOMOTIVES program, whose name stands for Lowering CO2: Models to Optimize Train Infrastructure, Vehicles and Energy Storage. SwRI’s Locomotive Technology Center contributed detailed information on locomotive power, efficiency and fuel consumption, as well as simulation support and expertise in testing locomotive batteries. SwRI’s Intelligent Systems Division supplied software and computational capabilities. Together, those contributions helped create a tool that links engineering data with transportation operations and infrastructure planning.

The two awards highlight the breadth of SwRI’s research portfolio, from mechanisms intended to control spacecraft thousands of kilometers above Earth to software designed to guide decisions about transportation infrastructure on the ground. SwRI President and CEO Adam Hamilton said the recognition reflects the organization’s multidisciplinary approach to applied research. R&D 100 Awards have honored leading technologies since 1963, with recipients ranging from universities and government laboratories to major corporations and smaller research organizations. SwRI has now received 56 of the awards since 1971. PaSTA and ALTRIOS represent different forms of innovation, but both are designed to solve problems in which performance depends on the interaction of many parts: a spacecraft, its solar arrays and docking systems in one case, and locomotives, energy supplies, schedules and rail corridors in the other.

News Publication Date: August 24, 2026

Web References: https://www.swri.org/markets/earth-space/space-research-technology/space-engineering

References: Southwest Research Institute; R&D World; U.S. Department of Energy Advanced Research Projects Agency—Energy; LOCOMOTIVES program.

Keywords

PaSTA technology, solar arrays, spacecraft docking, deployable truss, space engineering, Astroscale U.S. Provisioner, ALTRIOS, locomotive technology, rail infrastructure, hydrogen trains, battery locomotives, R&D 100 Awards, Southwest Research Institute