There are many pieces of equipment in space, such as satellites and telescopes. To make them work, there should be a good power source in space. Fuel and batteries are common sources of energy. But launching them into space costs a lot, since they are heavy. Is there a better way to power the equipment? One way is to use solar panels. These absorb energy from the sun. To get enough energy, the panels must be really wide. However, they are launched in a single rocket. So they must fit into it. NASA engineers found a solution to this problem. They came up with origami! Origami is a way of folding paper into shapes. Engineers made special panels. These could be folded like paper. One solar panel was 25 meters wide when it was open. However, it was only 2.7 meters wide when it was folded. It became almost ten times smaller! Origami is an art form. But it's also helpful to space science!