Strategies for Launch and Assembly of Modular Spacecraft
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Strategies for Launch and Assembly of Modular Spacecraft by Erica Lynn Gralla B.S.E., Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering (2004) Princeton University Submitted to the Department of Aeronautics & Astronautics in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Science in Aeronautics & Astronautics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology August 2006 © 2006 Massachusetts Institute of Technology All rights reserved Signature of Author ........................................................................................................ Department of Aeronautics & Astronautics August 15, 2006 Certified by .................................................................................................................... Olivier L. de Weck Associate Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics and Engineering Systems Thesis Supervisor Accepted by ................................................................................................................... Jaime Peraire Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics Chair, Committee on Graduate Students 1 2 Strategies for Launch and Assembly of Modular Spacecraft by Erica Lynn Gralla Submitted to the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics on August 15, 2006, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Aeronautics and Astronautics Abstract NASA’s human lunar and Mars exploration program requires a new transportation system between Earth and the Moon or Mars. In recent years, unfortunately, human space exploration programs have faced myriad political, technical, and financial difficulties. In order to avoid such problems, future human space exploration programs should be designed from the start for affordability. This thesis addresses one aspect of affordable exploration programs by tackling the issue of high costs for access to space. While launch vehicle trades for exploration programs are relatively well understood, on-orbit assembly has been given much less attention, but is an equally important component of the infrastructure enabling human access to space. Two separate but related perspectives on in-space assembly of modular spacecraft are provided: first, the coupling between launch vehicle selection, vehicle design, and on-orbit assembly is explored to provide a quantitative understanding of this combined tradespace; and second, a number of on-orbit assembly methods are analyzed in order to understand the potential value of a reusable assembly support infrastructure. Within the first topic, a quantitative enumeration of the launcher-assembly tradespace (in terms of both cost and risk) is provided based on a generalizable process for generating spacecraft modules and launch manifests from a transportation architecture. An optimal module size and launcher capability is found for a sample architecture at 82 metric tons; a 28-mt EELV emerges as another good option. The results show that the spacecraft design, assembly planning, and launcher selection are highly coupled and should be considered together, rather than separately. Within the second topic, four separate assembly strategies involving module self-assembly, tug- based assembly, and in-space refueling are modeled and compared in terms of mass-to- orbit requirements for various on-orbit assembly tasks. Results show that the assembly strategy has a significant impact on overall launch mass, and reusable space tugs with in- space refueling can significantly reduce the required launch mass for on-orbit assembly. This thesis thus examines a broad but focused set of issues associated with on-orbit assembly of next-generation modular spacecraft. Thesis supervisor: Olivier L. de Weck Title: Associate Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics and Engineering Systems 3 4 Acknowledgments My first and greatest thanks go to my advisor Professor Olivier de Weck, for his guidance, support, and inspiration. Despite an amazing number of demands on his time, he seemed always ready with an answer, some advice, or a word of encouragement – or a new and interesting research topic to distract me from my classes. Oli deserves many thanks for supporting my varied research directions, propensity for choosing conferences in far-off locations, and abrupt changes in doctoral research aspirations. And of course, for introducing me to the wonders of the Arctic and the Swiss mountains. For all that and more, thank you. I would also like to acknowledge the support of my colleagues and friends on the two major projects I worked on at MIT: the CE&R study and the Space Logistics project. Without the 8am meetings over IAP and the late-night Powerpoint engineering sessions, my life as a masters student would not have been complete. In all seriousness, I could not have accomplished nearly as much research without the dedication of both these teams. Finally, I want to thanks my professors and friends at MIT for their support over the past two years, especially in the Space Systems Lab and the space architecture research group. The 37 cluster has been a second home to me (perhaps more often than I would like), with too many silly moments in our office to count (dangling coconut heads, distorting cameras, ice axes appearing on my desk…). Thanks to the SSL, the ’06 and ’07 girls, and especially Sam. And my parents of course for their frequent messages and phone calls. You all made the past two years a great experience. Erica Gralla Cambridge, Massachusetts August 2006 5 6 Contents Contents .........................................................................................................................7 List of Figures .............................................................................................................9 List of Tables .............................................................................................................11 1. Introduction .............................................................................................................13 1.1 Motivation ...........................................................................................................15 1.2 Background..........................................................................................................16 1.2.1 On-Orbit Assembly Basics ............................................................................16 1.2.2 History of On-Orbit Assembly ......................................................................18 1.3 Literature Review.................................................................................................23 1.3.1 Assembly Literature......................................................................................23 1.3.2 On-Orbit Servicing Literature........................................................................28 1.3.3 Modularity Literature ....................................................................................30 1.3.4 Literature Summary.......................................................................................30 1.4 Research Goals....................................................................................................31 2. Launching Assemble-able Architectures ................................................................33 2.1 Designing for Assembly........................................................................................34 2.2 Chunking and Manifesting ...................................................................................35 2.2.1 Sample Transportation Architecture ..............................................................35 2.2.2 Launch ‘Chunking’ .......................................................................................37 2.3 Launch Vehicle Sizing Model ...............................................................................40 2.3.1 Full Factorial Search .....................................................................................41 2.3.2 Integer Optimization .....................................................................................42 2.4 Launch Vehicle Sizing Results..............................................................................45 2.4.1 Optimal Launch Vehicle Size Selection.........................................................46 2.4.2 Integer Optimization Results .........................................................................49 2.4.3 Risk Analysis: Payload Sparing.....................................................................51 2.5 Conclusions and Design Recommendations..........................................................54 3. Assembly Strategies .................................................................................................57 3.1 Assembly Techniques and Challenges ..................................................................58 3.1.1 Assembly Challenges ....................................................................................58 3.1.2 Assembly Techniques....................................................................................59 3.2 Assembly Strategies .............................................................................................61 3.2.1 Basic Assembly Concepts .............................................................................62 7 3.2.2 Assembly Strategies ......................................................................................63 3.3 Assembly Trades Model .......................................................................................65 3.3.1 Assembly Model Overview ...........................................................................65