MECHANICAL DESIGN FOR JET-X APERTURE DOOR

The joint European X-ray Telescope, JET-X, is one of the core instrume nts in the scientific payload of the Russian Spectrum Roentgen-Gamma-R G which is a high energy astrophysics mission. The JET-X structure is constructed from three carbon fibre tubular sections, and contains the instruments and acts as an optical bench. The forward section of the structure has a deployable door, which remains closed until the satell ite has reached orbit. The function of the door is to protect sensitiv e optical surfaces from contamination and moisture from ground operati ons, during launch and early orbits operations. The door is fabricated from a honeycomb core faced with aluminium alloy skins. The door is a pproximately 1 m in diameter and weighs about 6 Kg only. The door body , the cutter assembly and the hinge assembly were designed to withstan d the mechanical stresses arising during the launch environment. The d oor assembly was integrated to the main structure and vibration rests which simulate the conditions during the launch were conducted. These tests were: Sine, Random and Shock. This paper presents the door assem bly design, the finite element modelling and the dynamic responses dur ing the tests.