About Us
Deployable structures that reduce launch volume without reducing performance.
Deployable Dynamics is a start-up founded at Te Pūnaha Ātea – Auckland Space Institute by a team of mechanical engineers with more than a decade of experience in the design, analysis, and testing of aerospace structures.
Engineering Precision for Space
Our core expertise is the development of deployable structures for space applications, with a particular focus on optical systems. We design, analyse, assemble, and test passive deployable baffles in a wide range of sizes, from compact baffles for star trackers and star sensors to large deployable baffles for bigger space telescopes. Depending on the mission requirements, our systems can be supplied with an integrated deployable cover or with a separate deployable cover, both supported with independent and redundant Hold Down and Release Mechanisms (HDRMs).
Compact by Design
Our deployable baffles are suitable for spacecraft ranging from CubeSats to large satellite platforms. The passive telescopic architecture significantly reduces the baffle volume when stowed during launch while maintaining the required optical performance once deployed in orbit. This compact design allows more efficient use of the limited payload volume inside the spacecraft, reducing launch costs and enabling more payloads to be accommodated within the same mission.
Guglielmo Aglietti
Co-founder, CEO
Professor G. Aglietti is an internationally leading expert in space engineering, specialising in spacecraft structures and mechanisms. His work spans the Columbus module (ISS) and the European Space Agency, before moving to the UK, where he worked across academic research, teaching, and industry consultancy, in both theoretical and experimental capacities. He holds the Royal Academy of Engineering Research Chair in Space Engineering and is Director of the Surrey Space Centre.
Aglietti's work has been presented at leading international conferences, featured on various media outlets and is described in over 300 publications. In 2019, he moved to NZ and currently he is the Director of the Space Institute, Te Pūnaha Ātea, University of Auckland.
Mattia Longato
Co-founder, CTO
Dr. Mattia Longato covers a Research Fellow position at the Space Institute of the University of Auckland. He graduated in Aerospace Engineering at the University of Padua in 2020 and received his PhD in Mechanical Engineer at the University of Auckland in 2025. His doctoral research focused on the ball bearing microvibration characterisation generated by space mechanisms.
Currently, Co-founder of Deployable Dynamics, his research focuses on structural design, analysis, fabrication, assembly, and testing of deployable structures for optical payloads.
Mark Honeth
Technical Advisor
Mark Honeth is a New Zealand-based engineer and technical advisor for Deployable Dynamics.
With a background spanning mechatronics, software, and space systems, he brings over a decade of
experience across satellite hardware development and industrial automation.
Mark holds a Joint European MSc in Space Science and Technology from Luleå Tekniska Universitet and Université Toulouse III - Paul Sabatier — earned on an Erasmus Mundus Scholarship — and a BSc in Mechatronics Engineering from the University of Cape Town. He has co-authored several papers on deployable optical payloads for small satellites.