1379. Spacecraft Weight Reduction With Balance and Moment of Inertia Constraints
$20.00
SAWE Members get a $200 store credit each year.*
*Store credit coupon available at checkout, click the button in your shopping cart to apply the coupon.
Not applicable to SAWE textbooks and current conference technical papers.
Paper
Abstract
A method is presented which violates the ‘obvious’ or ‘normal’ balancing technique where moment of inertia (MOI) requirements present an additional constraint. A quasi-analytical/empirical approach to this technique has been utilized on the DSCS II spacecraft launched in the winter of 1979.
A resultant weight differential of 4.5 Out of 27 pounds of ballast was achieved. Additional weight reduction was possible with increased test time however, since there was no need to save weight for that launch, the weight savings was academic. The salient feature of the weight reduction is predicated on an increase in balance weight to effectively reduce the combination of balance and MOI weights.
