Space Vehicle Payload Adapter Truss Structure
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional space vehicle payload adapters with solid monocoque ring designs are heavy, expensive, and do not allow for easy access to internal components while maintaining high frequency modes during launch.
Innovation Solution
A space vehicle payload adapter design featuring a truss structure with interstitial rings and secondary payload adapters that are releasably attached, allowing for easier installation and access while maintaining high frequency modes through a sparse truss structure.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Strength
If a solid monocoque ring design is used, then stiffness at the interfaces of secondary payload adapters is provided and high frequency modes are maintained, but the structure becomes heavy and expensive to manufacture
Solution Approach 1:
The solid monocoque ring is segmented into a truss structure composed of multiple struts arranged in triangular patterns. This segmentation maintains structural stiffness through the triangular geometry while reducing material usage and weight. The struts are distributed throughout the ring structure to provide load paths without requiring a solid continuous material structure.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent utilizes composite material construction for the truss struts, combining different materials to achieve optimal strength-to-weight ratio. This allows the structure to maintain the necessary stiffness for high frequency mode maintenance while significantly reducing the overall weight compared to a solid monocoque design.
2Strength
If a solid monocoque ring design is used, then high frequency modes are maintained, but access to internal components is difficult
Solution Approach 1:
The segmented truss structure creates inherent openings and access points between the struts, allowing easy access to internal components while maintaining the structural integrity needed for high frequency mode maintenance. The triangular strut arrangement provides natural access corridors without compromising the stiffness requirements.
3Strength
If a solid monocoque ring design is used, then structural integrity is maintained, but manufacturing cost increases
Solution Approach 1:
The truss structure can be manufactured as separate strut components and assembled together, significantly reducing manufacturing complexity and cost compared to machining or forming a solid monocoque ring. This modular approach allows for easier fabrication, quality control, and potential reuse of components.
Solution Approach 2:
Multiple functional requirements are merged into the truss structure design, which simultaneously provides structural integrity, weight reduction, and manufacturing efficiency. The same strut arrangement that maintains stiffness also enables cost-effective fabrication through standardized components and assembly processes.
Data Source
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AI summary
Systems, methods, and apparatuses for the direct mount of secondary payload adapters to a truss structure common to a space vehicle payload adapter are disclosed herein. In one or more embodiments, a method for reacting loads into a space vehicle payload adapter comprises reacting, by more than two interstitial rings of the space vehicle payload adapter, the loads created by secondary payloads mounted onto the space vehicle payload adapter, into a truss structure of the space vehicle payload adapter. The method further comprises reacting, by struts of the truss structure, the loads to a forward ring and an aft ring of the space vehicle payload adapter. In one or more embodiments, the reacting of the loads maintains high frequency (e.g., greater than (>) thirty (30) gigahertz (GHz)) modes for the space vehicle payload adapter.