Pojawiła się koncepcja opracowania standardu
Launch-U na wzór CubeSatów, z tym, że dotyczyłoby to nieco większych i cięższych ładunków. Pozwoli to na większą elastyczność i mniejsze koszty wynoszenia na orbitę. I np. dla spełnienia tych wymagań będzie lepiej zbyt lekki ładunek dociążyć balastem , niż wykonywać dodatkowe analizy pozwalające na dopasowanie go do wymogów startu.
Proposed standard seeks to offer more launch flexibility for smallsatsby Jeff Foust — August 16, 2018
(...) “Why can’t we just buy a bus ticket or a plane ticket and get to space? What are some of the things that stop that from happening?” said Carrie O’Quinn, a senior project engineer at Aerospace, during a presentation about the standard at the AIAA/Utah State University Conference on Small Satellites here.
What makes that difficult today, she noted, is the requirement for “mission-unique analyses” when integrating a satellite onto a launch vehicle. Those analyses cost time and money that make it difficult to then shift that satellite to another launch in the event of delays.
The Launch-U standard is intended to be analogous to the cubesat standard, which sets requirements such as size and mass of such spacecraft. That makes it easy to swap out cubesats, or larger dispensers carrying multiple cubesats, even at the last minute.
“I’ve been a part of more than one mission where, four weeks prior to launch, we changed cubesats on the mission,” O’Quinn said. “We swapped them out, and the launch vehicle didn’t care, the primary satellite didn’t care, because it had met all of the requirements. That’s where we want to get to with these larger satellites.”
Under the Launch-U standard, larger smallsats would fit in a volume of 45 by 45 by 60 centimeters, with a mass of between 60 and 80 kilograms. Other requirements in the standard include the center of gravity of the satellite, its first fundamental frequency of vibration and loads. Those characteristics, she said, are “the most challenging” requirements for integrating payloads on a launch vehicle.
That approach, she acknowledged, requires that smallsats weighing less than 60 kilograms add ballast to meet that minimum mass. “This is kind of heresy in the launch world,” she said. “That seems a little weird, but I’m going to tell you as a launch vehicle provider that you’re going to launch some mass that is not necessary, but it’s really to get to where they don’t have to redo those analyses.” (...)
https://spacenews.com/proposed-standard-seeks-to-offer-more-launch-flexibility-for-smallsats/
Wątek: Technologie (zbiorczo) (Przeczytany 103429 razy)