What You’ll Solve

During launch, launch vehicles impart high loads into sensitive spacecraft components. Each spacecraft component and subsystem must be designed to withstand these launch loads. To make components strong enough to withstand these loads requires additional weight, which increases costs and reduces overall performance. A better option is to reduce the magnitude of the vibrations into the sensitive components by carefully designing the structure of the launch vehicle adapter.

In this tutorial, you will solve the problem of designing an isolation mount of the launch vehicle adapter such that the launch vibrations into sensitive components are minimized over a defined frequency range. The sensitive components you are concerned with are located on the solar panels. They are sensitive to inputs within the frequency range of 70 Hz to 100 Hz, especially in a direction normal to the panels.

Three equally-spaced bushings connect the launch vehicle adapter to the launch vehicle. The stiffness and damping characteristics of these bushings affect the transmitted vibration loads within the 70 to 100 Hz frequency range. Therefore, the design problem is stated as:

Find the ideal values of stiffness and damping for the launch vehicle adapter system such that:

To simplify the problem, you will study this system as a simplified set of rigid bodies, undergoing one set of launch input forces. This will give you a conceptual design of the launch vehicle adapter isolation system that you can further refine.