Spacecraft Structures pdf - ER - NASA

NASA Engineering Design Challenge: Spacecraft Structures 2007 – 1NASA Engineering DesignChallengesSpacecraft Structures1. OverviewSpace TransportationNASA Engineers at Marshall Space Flight Center, along with their partners atother NASA centers, and in private industry, are designing and beginning todevelop the next generation of spacecraft to transport cargo, equipment, andhuman explorers to space. These vehicles are part of the Constellation Program,which is carrying out a bold vision of human space exploration. The programincludes a crew exploration vehicle and the spacecraft to carry the crew to theMoon and later to Mars. The NASA Authorization Act of 2005 directs NASA toestablish a program to develop a sustained human presence on the Moon, whichwill serve as a stepping stone to further exploration of Mars and other destinations.This design challenge focuses on the Ares family of rockets, which willreplace the Space Shuttle in the task of putting people, satellites, and scientificexperiments into space.Figure 1.1. Thruststructure model.Connect to Engineering and ScienceThe Engineering Design Challenges connect students with the work of NASAengineers by engaging them in similar design challenges of their own. With somesimple and inexpensive materials, you, the teacher, can lead an exciting unit thatfocuses on a specific problem that NASA engineers must solve and the processthey use to solve it. In the classroom, students design, build, test, and revisetheir own solutions to problems that share fundamental science andengineering issues with the challenges facing NASA engineers.The Design ChallengeYou will present students with a challenge: Build a model thrust structure (theportion of the structure that attaches the engine to the rest of the spacecraft)that is as light as possible, yet, strong enough to withstand the load of a “launchto orbit” three times. See Figure 1.1. Students first determine the amount offorce needed to launch a model rocket to 3.3 feet (1 meter), which representslow Earth orbit. Then they design, build, and test their own structure designs.They revise their designs over several design sessions, trying to maintain orincrease the strength and reduce the weight of their structure. They documenttheir designs with sketches and written descriptions. As a culmination, studentscompile their results into a poster and present them to the class.Figure 1.2. Example launchtesting station.