Assignment

Your Position

Now that NEBULA - Xplorer is shortlisted by ESA for a mini-F mission class, a different launcher will be available. Hence, a different spacecraft is necessary which allows for a larger low energy X-ray instrument, possibly a high energy instrument (without input optics), and the complete satellite bus. This assignment is to design different spacecraft structures, targeted at a VEGA-C launcher, for this mini-F mission class. Goal is to have a strong and lightweight structure. FEM analysis is required to show that the final design will survive the launch.

This assignment will deliver an updated design description of the new spacecraft, including: - Overall design (drawings) and trade-offs - Mass and volume estimations - Results of FEM analysis on the structure given the VEGA-C launch loads - Recommendations on improvements in a next iteration