Mass Reduction and Vibration Damping of Satellite Brackets

Space Systems/Loral Engineering, 2001-02

Liaison(s): Brian Childs, Michael Freestone,Eric Roulo
Advisor(s): Clive Dym, Joseph King
Students(s): Annie Tran (TL), Eric Clement, Amy Gishifu, Ryan Ellis

Space Systems/Loral currently uses a graphite bracket design to support electronic instruments on their satellites. In order to increase cost effectiveness of launch, it is necessary to reduce the mass of the brackets. This will result in lowering of the natural frequency into the excitation range, and so additionally, SS/Loral asked us to incorporate a damping technique into the system. The team has used a four-phase project approach: research, FEA modeling and simulation, physical testing of a prototype, and comparative analysis to develop a new bracket design.