Structural Analysis of STARS Satellite

Abstract

This paper presents the structural analysis of STARS (Space Tethered Autonomous Robotic Satellite). STARS is a small satellite and will be launched in piggyback fashion by the Japanese launch vehicle H-2A in this fiscal year The STARS project is mainly carried out by Kagawa University, and Kyushu University is responsible for structural analysis. The satellite must satisfy the rocket's requirements in order to qualify for launch. This involves stiffness conditions and load conditions. The stiffness conditions require that the natural frequency of the satellite structure must be above a given frequency. In the load conditions. the following loads are considered: quasi-static, sinusoidal oscillation and random oscillation. It is necessary to analyze and perform experiments to satisfy these conditions. This paper presents the analysis of the natural frequencies, the quasi-static loads and the sinusoidal oscillations. The analysis uses the numerical simulation software ANSYS. Moreover, the paper explains the experiments performed: they are the surveying of the natural frequencies, the quasi-static loads, the sinusoidal oscillations and the random oscillations. The paper also compares the results of the analyses and the experiments in terms of the natural frequencies.