Design and modelling of a support and stabilizing cylinder for a very large stable membrane antenna

Kurzfassung

The Institute of Composite Structures and Adaptive Systems of the German Aerospace Center (DLR) is developing in cooperation with the European Space Agency (ESA) a large, light weight, stable membrane antenna, which can be packed in a small volume and deployed in space. This work comprised the design of a scalable prototype which needs to be engineered in a way to increase the packing efficiency which can be archived by rolling up the membranes and their stabilizing booms on a core structure. Previous projects have advanced the development of the main structure aiming on the dynamic stability and the characteristics of the booms. The central task of this student project was the design of the aforementioned core structure and all its sub-elements to facilitate an easy storage, deployment as well as operation. For this purpose the construction focused on lightweight design with attention to the limitation of stress to the core itself, the booms and especially the thin membranes. The process constituted a conceptual approach to match the preceding design activities, a discussion during the design phase and a final concept which will be manufactured and implemented with the existing components.