WEIGHT MINIMIZATION OF FLIGHT COMPONENTS

Minimizing the weight of structural components of the Space Station la unched onto orbit in a space shuttle can save cost, reduce the number of space shuttle missions and facilitate on-orbit fabrication. Traditi onal manual design of such components, although feasible, cannot repre sent a minimum weight condition. At NASA Lewis Research Center, a desi gn capability called CometBoards (which is an acronym for comparative evaluation test bed of optimization and analysis routines for the desi gn of structures) has been developed especially for the design optimiz ation of such flight components of the Space Station-a spacer structur e and a support system-illustrating the capability of CometBoards. The se components are designed for loads and behavior constraints that ari se from a variety of flight accelerations and maneuvers. The optimizat ion process using CometBoards reduced the weights of the components by one third from those obtained with traditional manual design. This pa per presents a brief overview of the design code CometBoards; and a de scription of the Space Station components, their design environments, behavior limitations and attributes of their optimum designs. Publishe d by Elsevier Science Ltd