Application of Multidisciplinary Design Optimization to a Resource Satellite

Abstract

Satellite system design is a process involving various branches of knowledge, in which the designer usually needs to tradeoff many essentials and takes remarkable time. While multidisciplinary design optimization (MDO) method provides an effective approach for complicated system design, it seems especially suitable for such kind design purpose. By applying MDO in satellite system design, the efficiency of design can be expected to be improved and powerful technical supports can be obtained, which means better performance, faster design process and lower cost. According to the Resource satellite mission, width of ground cover and ground resolution are taken as the performance measurement, which combined with total mass of satellite is accounted in the optimization objective in system level. The design variables and constraints of the problem are dealt with disciplines or subsystems such as GNC, power, structure and thermal control. Corresponding analysis modules close to practical engineering are modeled. A MDO program system is developed by integrating collaborative optimization (CO) methods in iSIGHT. The result shows that the comprehensive objective can be improved, which also indicates MDO is feasible and efficient to solve the spacecraft design problem. The technology can be consulted for further research work.