Vibration Response of Ultralight Coilable Spacecraft Structures

Abstract

Dynamic assessment of ultralight wrapped spacecraft structures subject to the launch vibration environment is difficult, and has been foregone in many space programs in favor of purely experimental test campaigns. We present a numerical methodology to better understand the wrapped state of a structure and the dynamic behavior during launch vibration, enabling higher confidence in its survivability and greater understanding of the dynamic behavior at different scales, which vibration test approaches alone cannot achieve.