Rapid Parametric Analysis and Design of Space-Based Solar Arrays

Large, deployable space-based solar array structures are an enabling technology for the solar electric propulsion technologies slated to power many future space missions. These arrays must be extensible from meters to tens of meters in dimension in order to support the highly varying power requirements of different missions, and efficient tools for understanding how a concept copes with scaling are key to evaluating the extensibility of the design architecture. Unfortunately, most currently available software tools that can be used for this task are inadequate in one aspect of design exploration or another. In most cases this is because evaluating multiple design points requires significant user intervention and/or extensive remodeling. To better explore deployable structure performance, ATA Engineering, Inc., is developing an analysis and design toolset that allows for rapid exploration of large, possibly discontinuous, design spaces using a single extensible structural model. This toolset has been used to explore design spaces of fanfold and linear style deployable solar arrays to better understand their capabilities.