Analysis of Structural Strength in the Design of a CubeSat Nanosatellite

Abstract

At present, researches have been carried out about structural design of miniature satellites, in order to reduce the size of large satellites to smaller dimensions, and so to reduce structural mass, and therefore, the costs derived from the launching of these satellites, since placing a satellite into orbit has very high costs depending on its structural mass, that is, for big masses of a satellite, the costs for its launching and putting into orbit in space are greater, the opposite happens if the mass of the satellite is reduced. Based on the above, in this work is proposed a structural design of a CubeSat type satellite, with a small number of structural components, with the main objective of reducing mass, as well as being able to assemble and disassemble the satellite in an easy and fast way, both on land and in orbit. To achieve these objectives, a finite element software called Ansys multiphysics will be used, which determine the strains and stresses that the proposed satellite will undergo, in order to evaluate its structural strength when submitted to loads generated by high acceleration of the launching vehicle during the take-off phase. It will be shown by mean of the results obtained for the strains and Von Mises' stresses, if the proposed structure is suitable to withstand the stresses which the structure will be submitted to.