Questions tagged [design]
Questions about how space vehicles and related hardware are designed. See also [structural-design] and [engine-design].
298
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Biggest periscope camera that could fit inside a Starlink satellite; how thick are they?
If all Starlink satellites had phone tier cameras & simple scopes, could images processed by their super-resolution imaging network be competitive? is a cool question and to integrate a reasonable ...
3
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2answers
230 views
Why haven't we seen more origami in spacecraft?
I remember watching a few videos awhile back talking about origami designs in spacecraft:
Origami in Space: BYU-designed solar arrays inspired by origami
Engineering with Origami
I've only done a ...
12
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1answer
2k views
Why do Teledesic satellites look so weird? What are these structures and where's the satellite bus?
source enlarged and sharpened
To my untrained eye I see a weird claw or flower-like antenna array with eight petals in the shape reminiscent of concave dish but not really, that look like they might ...
4
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1answer
59 views
How did Sputnik 1's antennas couple to its body, electrically and mechanically?
Looking at https://www.britannica.com/technology/satellite-communication/Development-of-satellite-communication I found the image of a model of Sputnik 1 below.
It shows details of its four rod ...
0
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2answers
49 views
First cylindrical Earth satellite? Last?
Sputnik 1 was a shiny metal sphere, as were it's immediate followers.
These days Earth satellites are generally rectangular prisms, either one or a few stuck together. Basically big metal chassis ...
2
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0answers
53 views
what kind of valves are used in payload fairing for venting?
I wanted to know that there have been a handful of literature that mentions vent openings in the rocket payload fairings. However, none specify the kind of valves used in those fairings? does anyone ...
42
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1answer
9k views
How (the heck) did Lunokhod 2 drive, navigate and survive a ~40 kilometer drive over four months on the Moon using 1970's technology?
Mashable.com's Every rover, ranked by distance traveled on the moon and Mars; The 13 rovers, ranked. calls attention to this amazing feat, and a review of basic statistics and discussions on odometry ...
5
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0answers
136 views
How do they know that the Dragonfly helicopter won't get quickly coated in tholin muck? Any desliming technology for camera lenses or propellors?
From Air and Space's Dragonfly Is the First Aircraft Built for the Outer Solar System; NASA returns to Saturn’s largest moon with a rover that can fly. which I just found in this heavily-sourced ...
7
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1answer
158 views
How does the Dragonfly helicopter for Titan compare to Perseverance, Ingenuity and a human in terms of size, mass, weight and daily range?
It wasn't until Are Perseverance's wheels really this big? that I realized just how big Curiosity and Perseverance probably are. Writing What is the pop-up circular disk with spiral pattern in ...
8
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2answers
576 views
What is the pop-up circular disk with spiral pattern in this NASA animation of the Dragonfly helicopter for Titan? Antenna? Kind, band, target?
At 00:36 in the June 2019 NASA video Dragonfly: NASA's New Mission to Explore Saturn's Moon Titan the animation shows it landing then deploying a circular disk with ...
20
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4answers
5k views
How well would Max Faget's April 1, 1969 design for the Space Shuttle have actually worked? What would have been the major problems?
This answer to Who are the actual lead designers of manned spacecraft? says (in its entirety):
Max Faget was involved in the design of every US manned spacecraft flown to date. Mercury, Gemini, ...
8
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1answer
494 views
Use of high energy propellants on an engine designed for low energy propellants
This question is about use of high energy propellants on a rocket engine designed for low energy propellants. In any engine, which is currently working on RP1+LOX, if we change the fuel from RP1 to ...
14
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1answer
2k views
Why did each F-1 engine have dual fuel feedlines?
Each F-1 engine had two fuel feedlines connecting it to the fuel tank as shown in these contemporary photographs and drawings.
The corresponding LOX system only had one feedline.
The engine had a ...
7
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0answers
80 views
Why are DART's solar panels aligned like this?
I've never noticed this before, but the two solar arrays of NASA and APL's DART spacecraft are at different "levels". In this image, the solar panel on the left extends out from the "...
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0answers
34 views
Articulable/tilt-able solar panels planned for, or already tried on Mars or the Moon to get rid of deadly dust accumulation on solar panels?
From Forbes.com's Mars Opportunity And Spirit Rovers Could Have Lived Practically Forever With One Tiny Change:
One option would be to install some mechanism such as wiper blades to remove any ...
16
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1answer
3k views
Why was the Space Shuttle Orbiter's in-orbit time limited?
I remember reading/watching that the Shuttle had a limited time to stay in orbit. And that's why Soyuzes were the only Assured Crew Return Vehicles (ACRV) for the International Space Station until ...
4
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1answer
147 views
How did Gagarin's flight affect improvements to the Vostok capsule?
Every spaceflight is an opportunity to learn what does not work well and to improve the vehicle for the next flight. Did Yuri Gagarin's first human spaceflight yield any changes to the capsules or ...
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0answers
50 views
Pressurant gas line design considerations
I am trying to understand the constraints on pressurant gas line sizes and lengths.
For a static volume, the lines can be small in diameter because there is no significant flow velocity and therefore ...
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0answers
36 views
Why does the RD-0110 Injector have a larger cone spray angle in the outer element rather than the inner element?
Wouldn't a large cone spray angle in the inner element (oxidizer) impinge with the outer element spray cone (fuel) and facilitate better atomization and mixing?
Here are the RD-0110 Injector specs:
1
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1answer
62 views
Could an orbital launcher look like a scaled up Nike Hercules?
We now have flyable, recoverable suborbital boosters, which would be the first stage.
The second stage of the Saturn V rocket was able to hurl the 100 ton Skylab into an orbit over 250 miles high.
...
3
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0answers
93 views
Why are strap-on boosters more often attached radially in Eastern-European/Asian rockets, and bilaterally in Western-European/American rockets?
While comparing launch vehicles with strap on boosters, it appears to me that the majority of Eastern-European/Asian vehicles arrange the boosters radially, but the Western-European/American vehicles ...
9
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1answer
262 views
What do large, modern communications satellites look like inside (roughly at least)?
Modern communications satellite in GEO are big, majestic beasts. They are quite large and voluminous. They can sport quite an array of antennas and handle huge bandwidths and multiple communications ...
4
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0answers
84 views
How efficient was Telstar's solar cell configuration, compared to a flat panel?
Telstar was a series of communication satellites first launched in 1962. The body of the satellite is roughly spherical, with much of the outer surface covered in solar cells. This gives the ...
7
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2answers
305 views
Which explode in spaceflight more often, nuts or bolts?
The history of spaceflight is littered with exists because of exploded nuts and bolts (and upon further reflection, a whole lot of other items!)
"Exploding bolts" is really a generic term. ...
3
votes
1answer
266 views
What technologies enable or at least help satellite operation in Very Low Earth Orbit (VLEO)?
This answer to How low is VLEO? (FCC's newest approval for SpaceX) suggests VLEO begins (or ends I guess) at 350 km.
The two bad things I know about in VLEO are an enhanced rate of altitude loss due ...
3
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1answer
163 views
How will the future Mars Space Suit Helmet design protect Astronauts from Martian Radiation?
Mars Space Suit Helmet Visor's were mostly made up of polycarbonate [1], the same material used for EMU's visor for performing EVA in earth orbit. Meanwhile, Mars' radiation is 2.5x higher. How are we ...
5
votes
1answer
133 views
How to select appropriate orbital rocket stage thrust?
I’ve been working on a preliminary design of a small-lift launch vehicle capable of sending a small satellite into LEO. Given the required $\Delta v$ (~9 km/s for LEO), the mass distribution, ...
4
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0answers
89 views
What is the maximum force a deep space spacecraft experiences after launch?
The premise of How much of a deep space spacecraft's structural mass is useless dead weight after launch? Any plans to shed it in the future? is that the forces a deep space spacecraft experiences ...
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0answers
92 views
How much of a deep space spacecraft's structural mass is useless dead weight after launch? Any plans to shed it in the future?
After seeing this in Security SE
Magnetic core memory isn't quite extinct yet. The two Voyager spacecraft used it and are still functional. Core was/is certainly non-volatile.
I did some ...
4
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0answers
109 views
Where can I read about Lucy's complete propulsion system?
Wikipedia's /Lucy (spacecraft) says nothing of propulsion, and it's SWRI home page for the spacecraft http://lucy.swri.edu/mission/Spacecraft.html gives specification and enumerates what's on Lucy’s ...
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0answers
75 views
How do all the struts and crosses in the Orion Crew Capsule Service Module work together? What do each of these parts do?
The BBC's Europe to make more hardware for American Moon missions says that three more service modules for the Orion Crew Capsule have been ordered by NASA, bringing the total desired to six.
I ...
12
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3answers
297 views
How big could a rocket get?
What are the practical limitations on the size of Earth based, orbital rockets? How tall/heavy might we make a rocket?
For the purposes of this question, I'm mostly interested in rockets using ...
1
vote
3answers
249 views
How to make a model rocket that doesn't spin?
I'm attempting to build a rocket with 8 fins (four on bottom and four smaller ones towards the top). The four fins near to the top will be attached to servo motors and programmed to stabilize or guide ...
2
votes
1answer
119 views
How redundant are Orion's power and data units (PDUs)? Doubly? Quadruply? If so, why?
In the news today:
NASA to skip repair of Orion electronics unit
NASA will fly Orion deep-space crew capsule ‘as is,’ despite failed component; The agency claims there is enough redundancy in the ...
4
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1answer
172 views
Docking cubesat in orbit - is it possible?
Would it be plausible to launch two or more cubsat's into orbit, and then have them dock together, allowing them to pack on more hardware and even fuel, broadening their capability? If it is possible, ...
3
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2answers
136 views
What should be the shape of a rocket going to Mars, since Mars atmosphere is around 2 percent of that of Earth's?
What should be the design or shape of a rocket going to mars?
2
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1answer
492 views
What is the Starship forward dome?
What is the Starship forward dome?
How does it look like?
What other parts are connected to it and what is it good for?
13
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1answer
345 views
What was this strange design for the Man In Space Soonest program?
The following picture shows various spacecraft design proposals for the 1958 U.S. Air Force Man In Space Soonest program:
The bottom row depicts various spaceplanes, which should not be a surprise ...
31
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9answers
5k views
Is it common and good engineering for a pair of cables to be easily plugged into each other's connectors in modern spacecraft
Space News's Human error blamed for Vega launch failure
Analysis of the telemetry from the mission, along with data from the production of the vehicle, led them to conclude that cables to two thrust ...
5
votes
2answers
205 views
How to get started with CubeSats
I am new both to CubeSats and to Stack Exchange.
I have recently started studying and planning on how to build a CubeSat, as cheaply as possible. I have read some blog posts and watched some videos, ...
5
votes
1answer
237 views
MT-135 Sounding Rocket info / design
I'm searching for any design file or deep-info on the MT-135 rocket, the fuel used, engines, engines info, any thing really. I have deep-searched on tons of sites but I just find few missions that ...
2
votes
1answer
83 views
Finding the mass flow rate of a blowdown system?
This is a rather amateur question I will admit but how does one find the mass flow rate of an engine with a given tank pressure? Is it really as simple as calculating the cross-section of all plumbing,...
4
votes
1answer
188 views
What's the status and timeline for Millimetron? (Russia's 10m Deployable Antenna cooled to 6 K Earth-Space VLBI)
Comments below an answer to How does NASA's ASTHROS stratospheric telescope compare to its James Webb space telescope? link to JPL's Paul F. Goldsmith's The Renaissance of High Resolution ...
5
votes
1answer
200 views
Do space suit designers exist?
I was just having a closer look at the new space-suits by SpaceX,
that were worn by NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley (image below this question).
The design made me wonder about who may ...
7
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1answer
375 views
Why are the SpaceX Starship, "rings" the width that they are?
Why are the SpaceX Starship, "rings" the width that they are? Wouldn't creating the rings from SS that's twice as wide reduce the welding by half?
6
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3answers
245 views
What are the most common practical design specifications for antenna in space?
I'm writing my thesis on antennas for small satellite applications (cubesats).
Apart from the electrical specifications related to the particular application there are also several other "...
4
votes
2answers
192 views
Have there been any square 4U (2x2) cubesats?
How much did each MarCO 6U cubesat weigh? suggests that the density of a MarCO 6U cubesat might be as low as 0.75 g/cm^3 whereas I think they are usually about twice that.
That led me to speculate ...
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0answers
43 views
How much did each MarCO 6U cubesat weigh?
Yes the answer is zero now because they are weightless, but I used past tense. In any event, let's try to find a good, reliable source for each spacecraft's mass and whether that number is dry or ...
2
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0answers
75 views
Essential sensors for cubesat ADCS
We are building a 3U satellite to orbit Earth and measure space debris.
Between gyroscope, GPS, IMU, magnetometer, Sun sensors and star tracker, which would be essential sensors for the ADCS?
Or ...
15
votes
1answer
706 views
Why do Ingenuity's legs differ?
In the pictures below, I notice that not all of the legs of Ingenuity are the same (look at the end of them, directly touching the surface). It looks like a single one is different than the other 3.
...
