This post is a work-in-progress… Combined Ascent Loads for Launch Vehicle Analysis Equivalent Axial & Line Loads for Launch Vehicles Launch Vehicle and Spacecraft Primary Structure Response to High Frequency Shock and Vibration – Tom Irvine Explore more in our Spacecraft Dynamics Knowledge Hub: View… Read more
Stentor Satellite Equipment mounted in satellites must withstand acoustic-driven random vibration at liftoff and during the transonic and maximum dynamic pressure phases of flight. The equipment must be designed and test accordingly. The equipment is mounted on shaker tables for the random vibration testing,… Read more
Launch vehicle and spacecraft equipment must withstand pyrotechnic shock from stage separation and other flight events. Civil engineering structures and equipment must survive seismic events. There are many other examples where military, automotive, telecommunication and other equipment must be designed and tested to meet shock… Read more
LV/SC Clampband Release Test Here is an excellent reference on shock testing and analysis: European Cooperation for Space Standardization, Space engineering, Mechanical Shock Design and Verification Handbook, ECSS-E-HB-32-25A, 14 July 2015 download link The Shock Handbook was covered in several presentations at the ESA 2nd Workshop on Spacecraft… Read more
A spacecraft at launch is subjected to a harsh acoustic and vibration environment resulting from the passage of acoustic energy, created during the liftoff of a launch vehicle, through the vehicle’s payload fairing. In order to ensure the mission success of the spacecraft it is… Read more
Curiosity is a car-sized robotic rover exploring Gale Crater on Mars as part of NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory mission (MSL). Curiosity was launched from Cape Canaveral on November 26, 2011 aboard the MSL spacecraft and landed on Aeolis Palus in Gale Crater on Mars on… Read more
The following is based on a description from Dennis Kern, NASA/JPL, which Isam Yunis, NASA Langley, referenced in a shock presentation. Shocks travel through structure as a combination of propagating waves and vibration response, with the vibration response concentrated more in lower frequencies and the… Read more
Update: Spacecraft On-Orbit Microvibration & Jitter Slides Introduction Spacecraft must withstand vibration from pre-launch transportation and from powered flight. The spacecraft is not powered during these events. In addition, a spacecraft must withstand “microvibration” or “jitter” from its own moving parts once it reaches orbit… Read more
NASA-STD-5002, Load Analyses of Spacecraft and Payloads, 1996 5.3.2 Transient load analysis (excerpt) Statistical variation of parameters governing the forcing functions is accommodated by generating multiple cases of forcing functions for a single flight event. After all cases are analyzed, the maximum transient load is… Read more
Engineers prepare the MESSENGER spacecraft for a vibration test at The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel, Md., where the Mercury-bound NASA spacecraft was designed and built. * * * Introduction Flight configured spacecraft are subjected to base input vibration tests for certain programs.… Read more