Design and optimization of lightweight space telescope structures

As mankind attempts to look deeper into the universe, increasingly larger space telescopes will be needed to achieve the levels of resolution required to perform these missions. Due to this increase in size, increasing emphasis will be placed on designing lightweight, efficient structures in order to reduce structural mass and minimize launch costs. This thesis discusses several issues related to the design of lightweight space telescopes. Three topics are presented. The first topic deals with the design of a secondary mirror support structure. A simple tripod design is studied and optimized in detail. Several baffle--type designs are also studied and compared to the tripod. Finally, the buckling behavior of the bars in the structures is considered. The second topic deals with localized effects around the attachment points of actuators on a deformable mirror. Using a least-squares method and the coefficient of multiple determination, deformation results from a finite element model are compared to an ideal deformation shape obtained from beam bending theory. Using these results, an optimum set of dimensions is found for the actuator standoff posts that minimizes the deviation of the finite element results from the ideal shape.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Aeronautics and Astronautics.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2007

Author dc:creator

• Stewart, Andrzej Matthew

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• David W. Miller.

• Aeronautics and Astronautics.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/39709

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/39709