Spacecraft Structures Development

Spacecraft and launcher structures are subjected to extreme environments, making their design and development and the verification thereof (DVV) very complex. In this course

the design of the main spacecraft structure, the structural behaviour of non-structural spacecraft components and their interaction will be illustrated and addressed through the design of the structure of a spaceborne instrument. Thermal elastics and dynamics of the instrument structure will be considered. In small groups, participating students will have to design their own instrument structure, addressing both thermo-elastics and vibrations. Verification and validation of the designs will be addressed as well.

The course will consist of lectures, working sessions, design review sessions and a final symposium. The course structure will be explained in detail in the first weekly module. The time and date of the design review(s) and final symposium will also be communicated in the first weekly module. Students are requested to reserve all scheduled timeslots in their agendas.

Each module will consist of a combination of learning activities, e.g. reading suggested papers, watching videos and small assignments.

Note that, the course will require group work. Groups will be formed in the fourth week of the course. Only students who pass the individual test are allowed to participate in a group. Students who are not part of a group cannot participate in the remainder of the course. For the purpose of the course, each group will be considered to be a company that tries to win the bid of a large space organization to engineer a space instrument.

At the end of the course, a mini-symposium will be organized in which each group presents their design for the space instrument structure.

The assessment consists of two parts: group assessment and individual assessment, where the group assessment has a weight of 2/3 and the individual assessment a weight of 1/3.

The group assessment consists of two parts:

1. Design specification sheet of group design (template will be provided)

2. Design presentation at final symposium

The design specification sheet will address the following points:

- Thermo-elastics design

- Vibration design

- Design integration

- Systems Engineering

- Verification en Validation

The individual assessment is based on two parts:

1. Individual test on course content

2. Review of design specification sheet of another group

In the event that it is observed that students in a group have not contributed equally to the group assignment, then the group's work may be evaluated separately to assess the individual performance to assign individual grades.

Students with a failing grade for the individual test, i.e. a grade below 5.8, will have a resit opportunity of the individual test in week 4 of the course. This resit will be in the form of a short oral exam. This resit is only available for students who did not pass the individual test. On passing the oral resit exam, students will receive a 5.8 as grade for the individual test. Students who fail the resit opportunity will not be able to participate in the group work, and therefore cannot participate in the remainder of the course.

It is mandatory that students are present at the design review(s) and the final symposium presentations of their own group and those of other groups. The individual grade of students who fail to be present will be withheld. These students will not receive a final grade for the course as a result. Students of whom the individual grade which has been withheld, may take a resit. The resit will be in the form of a short oral exam. It will be possible to apply for a resit up to 15 working days after the publication of the grades in Osiris, but no later. A resit exam will then be scheduled by the principle lecturer of the course in consultation with the student in question.

Grading criteria will be defined in the first lecture.