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Keo being a passive satellite, how can it move its wings?

April 26, 2017keo passive satellite wings

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Keo being a passive satellite, how can it move its wings?

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To allow its wings to flutter, KEO uses a leading-edge technology “shape memory alloys”. These are metallic alloys that are able to assume different shapes according to different temperature ranges and revert to their original shapes each time they are brought back under their original temperature. Thus KEO’s wings will go down each time the satellite enters the Earth’s cone of shadow, and go up as soon as KEO encounters direct sunlight again. Therefore, no form of energy is needed to make KEO’s wings function.