22 | Engineering Reality Magazine

Space CAE – The First and

Final Frontier …

By Doug Neill and Keith Hanna, MSC Software

I n the development of any technology, it is recognized that the right catalyst can propel a nascent capability into a necessary component of progress. And, 56 years ago,

finite element analysis (FEA) really took off (some might say quite literally so!) with the invention of MSC’s Nastran FEA solver for the NASA American moon landing program (reference 1, 2).

Introduction

As we approach the 50th anniversary of the first NASA Apollo 11 moon landing when Commander Neil Armstrong uttered the words, “One small step for (a) man, one giant leap for mankind”, we thought it was worth looking backwards (a little nostalgically) and forwards (boldly, and with vision) to

the application of CAE in the space industry yesterday, today and in the future. We believe that we are approaching another golden age of both space travel and space exploration by humans, where technology advances are democratizing and expanding space exploration beyond the realms of national governments. This development will necessitate even more CAE simulations than ever before, in ever more challenging environments, where no other cost-effective solution exists than CAE for predicting performance and mitigating risks of failure and expensive write-offs. What a time to be alive, and to be a CAE engineer in the space industry!

It is worth pointing out that following the success of the Soviet Sputnik space program in the 1950s and 1960s, and U.S. President John F. Kennedy’s famous 1962 speech imploring his fellow Americans to get a man onto the moon and back by 1970, the subsequent tragedy of three Apollo 1 astronauts dying on their launch pad in 1967 meant that the 1969 moon landing was inherently very risky. In an excellent radio documentary broadcast last year by the BBC in the UK (reference 2), the manned 1968 Apollo 8 moon-orbiting mission was a major precursor to the Apollo 11 moon landing. It even resulted in the now famous ‘Earthrise’ photograph (left) taken by astronaut William Anders, that helped to fuel the environmental movement on earth and showed how precarious, unique, and beautiful our blue planet is in the vast darkness of our solar system. This mission was the first time that humans left the orbit of their mother planet with the risk of not coming back. The sling shot trajectory Apollo 8 took around the moon was hazardous but essential to show that a manned moon landing

was possible. It was a resounding success just after Christmas 1968. And the Moon Landings made history in 1969 as we all know. If you want to read of the sobering speech that President Richard Nixon had prepared should the Apollo 11 mission have failed, check out the Space.com article (reference 3) to show how risky this Mission was that made history.

‘Cold War’ Space Race Drives the Adoption of CAE

After the Second World War, and with the fall of the ‘Iron Curtain’ - as Sir Winston Churchill called it - across Europe, the world went into a ‘Cold War’. As with nearly all wars, science and engineering got an unexpected dividend; competing governments started to embrace simulation software for both design of defense related nuclear missiles, and space exploration, in a race between the Western Powers and Soviet Russia for technological world dominance and global propaganda. Indeed, it can be argued that the space industry, and its associated missile and engine design challenges, were probably one of the biggest catalysts for CAE advances in the mid to late 20th century, and ultimately the emergence of the commercial CAE industry as we know it today (see references 4,5,6).

Dr. Richard H. MacNeal (pictured left, sitting on the right) founded MSC along with Robert Schwendler (not shown in this photo) in 1963 under the name of MacNeal-Schwendler Corporation. Under their leadership, MSC developed its first structural analysis software called SADSAM (Structural Analysis by Digital Simulation of Analog Methods) and they were deeply

Volume IX - Summer 2019 | mscsoftware.com | 23

24 | Engineering Reality Magazine

Manufacturing Process Simulation• Additive Manufacturing• Joining, Foming Assembly

Electronics• Thermal Management

Multibody Dynamics• Forces• Loads

Controls• Systems

Thermo-Mechanical• Analysis

Satellite separation• Forces• Loads

Vibro-Acoustic Analyses• Payload survival• Fatigue• Launch Loads• Virtual Testing

Structural Inegrity during mission• Loads

Design & Sizing• CAD cleaning• Parts & Assembly based modelling• Structural performance analysis• System dynamics

Aerodynamics• Drag, lift, torque, shocks• Aerothermal heating• Avionics & fluidics

Advanced Materials• Mechanical and thermal properties of

metal & composite microstructures• Material Life Cycle Management• Virtual allowables• Effect of defects• Light weighting

Orbital Heating• Thermal Radiation• Thermal analysis

Figure 1: Assortment of Multiphysics CAE applications of MSC Software tools in the Space Industry today

involved in the early efforts of the aerospace industry to improve early finite element analysis technology. In response to a 1965 request for a proposal from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) for a general purpose structural analysis program, Dr. MacNeal contributed greatly to the early efforts of the aerospace industry by successfully simulating on-the-ground physical testing through computing to deliver the right answers and right physics to take humans to the moon (reference 1). The core of MSC Nastran was the code that NASA used to structurally analyze the Apollo Space Program. In 1971, MSC Software released a commercial version of the same software and since then its value to society (both tangible and intangible) in the creation, extension and spread of FEA simulation technologies was calculated by a NASA valuation of MSC Nastran in 2003 to be $10B in economic value (reference 2).

It is less well known, or even appreciated, in this the half century anniversary year of the Apollo 15 manned mission to the Moon with Neil Armstrong’s first step on the lunar landscape (on July 20th 1969), that the application of CAE in space has been going on diligently and quietly for the last 50 years. Moreover, MSC Software’s tools and solutions have been in the vanguard of modern space industry simulations and related equipment design - from multi-body dynamics to acoustics, FEA to CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics), and, latterly, materials analysis and novel manufacturing techniques (like additive manufacturing). MSC’s unprecedented and unique co-simulation capabilities in CAE have allowed for a very wide range of some of the most accurate and reliable engineering simulations possible for the space industry yesterday and today (see Figure 1).

Volume IX - Summer 2019 | mscsoftware.com | 25

Unprecedented Interest in Space Travel, Further Moon Landings and Interplanetary Exploration

Space has today again become truly a frontier for technology advancement with larger-than-life multi-billionaires like Elon Musk (SpaceX, Tesla) making ever more extravagant claims and stunts - a Tesla car playing David Bowie tracks on an infinite loop is flying into deep space as we write - and hosting regular press conferences with amazing projections for what his company will do next in space. Richard Branson (Virgin Galactic) and Jeff Bezos (Blue Origin, Amazon) - the world’s richest man - are jumping on the space bandwagon and are in a race to successfully launch passenger-carrying suborbital flights from earth by a commercial airline for the first time (references 7,8). The emergence of Musk’s privately owned and very profitable SpaceX corporation, founded in 2003 to make money from space, has revolutionized the commercial satellite industry, but ever more ambitious plans for geostationary telescopes, lunar polar manned space stations, human colonies on Mars, and even plans for lunar mining and smart factories are being explored. There are even six geostationary satellites in orbit around the planet Mars today.

Emerging nations like China, Israel and India are staking claims to space. The recent landing of the Chang’e 6 Lunar Module and Rover on the dark side of the Moon in December 2018 illustrates this (reference 9), the privately funded SpaceIL craft that set off for a soft landing on the moon in February 2019 (reference 10), and India’s ambitious Chandrayaan-2 Mission to put a man back on the moon by the end of 2021 (reference 11). Japan has a healthy space program and its Hayabusa-2 lander successfully intercepted the Ryugu asteroid in February 2019 (reference 12). Even President Donald Trump announced plans in 2018 for a US Space Force, to be the 6th branch of the American military (reference 13).

We reviewed a broad sweep of space related projects using MSC Software solutions over the last few years and noted some cool applications being tackled today. Researchers in Harbin University in China (reference 14) last year successfully coupled MSC’s Adams multi-body dynamics solver to EDEM from DEM Solutions in a co-simulation chain to model a novel new spider-like robotic lander vehicle capable of dealing with rough terrain on other planets (Figure 2). Research at the Politecnico di Torino in Italy last year also analyzed multibody mechanisms for inflatable structures in manned space applications using the Adams and MSC Nastran SOL400 co-simulation solver (reference 15). Their numerical results showed what was possible for the inflatable manned space module with rigid components and a flexible coating made of Kevlar (Figure 3), and led to some recommendations related to its optimal structural performance.

Many researchers in the last 10 years have used MSC Software to examine the dynamics of lunar landers and ascent vehicles and a typical study can be seen in Figure 4 from the S.P. Korolev Rocket and Space Public Corporation Energia (RSC Energia) in Russia in 2018. They used Adams coupled with Python scripts to look at the dynamics of landing and taking off from the lunar surface. A MSc Thesis involving a design study at the University of Delft in the Netherlands to investigate the optimal structural design for an inflatable lunar greenhouse module was carried out in 2014 (reference 17). The student verified preliminary design calculations and compliance with requirements for thermal and load-bearing structural properties of a Kevlar composite, using the FEA tool MSC Nastran (Figure 5). And, finally, a Masters Thesis from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in America in 2016 (reference 18) employed SimXpert and MSC Nastran to investigate whether a CubeSat satellite design that uses a combination of propulsion and solar arrays stresses the dynamics of the solar panels and their hinges that hold them in place (Figure 6).

Figure 2: Chinese Robotic Lander was simulated in MSC Adams and connected to EDEM for Lunar terrain modeling

Figure 3: Italian Flexible Membrane Space Station Simulated in Adams and MSC Nastran

Figure 4: Russian Lunar Landing & Ascent Vehicle dynamics simulated in Adams

Figure 5: Dutch University proposal for an Inflatable Lunar Greenhouse simulated in MSC Nastran

Summary & Conclusions

Fifty years after the first moon landing by Neil Armstrong on the Apollo 11 Mission, it is fair to say that the exploration (and exploitation) of space, our neighboring planets, and moons, for commercial means has never been so topical, or more lucrative. Assorted commercial players in the space industry have started to enter the market in the last 20 years bringing down the cost of participation. Polar moon bases, lunar mining, landing on asteroids, and colonies on planet Mars are all being examined as feasible opportunities. Even in situ 3D printer facilities, lunar factories, chemical processing facilities, and lunar greenhouses are being proposed and designed using CAE before ever being built. MSC Software was there at the start of Space CAE half a century ago delivering accurate FEA simulations; we continue to play a big part in the emerging commercial space industry, and the future is looking ever more exciting for space engineers in the 21st century.

Figure 6: US MIT study on CubeSat Satellite Solar Panels simulated in SimXpert

References

1. ‘Getting the Right Answers”, Article by D. Gallello and D. Neill, MSC Website, 2017: https://www.mscsoftware.com/sites/default/files/Getting_Right_Answers.pdf

2. ‘The NASA Heritage of Creativity’, Article by Theron M. Bradley, Jr., NASA Chief Engineer and Chair of the ICB, Annual Report of the NASA Inventions & Contributions Board, 2003: https://www.nasa.gov/pdf/251093main_The_NASA_Heritage_Of_Creativity.pdf

3. ‘The Engineering Design Revolution – The People, Companies and Computer Systems That Changed Forever the Practice of Engineering’ by D.E. Weisberg: http://www.cadhistory.net/

4. ‘Christmas on the Far Side of the Moon’, BBC Radio Podcast, 27th December 2018: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0001qn1

5. ‘What If Apollo 11 Failed? President Nixon Had Speech Ready’, by N. T. Redd, July 22nd 2014, Space.com website: https://www.space.com/26604-apollo-11-failure-nixon-speech.html

6. ‘The History of MSC Software’, YouTube Video, March 8th 2018: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ueFybc6XXmo

7. Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic Wikipedia site: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virgin_Galactic

8. Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin Wikipedia site: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Origin

9. ‘Chang’e-4 landing to be a step along a road of lunar exploration for China’, A. Jones, Space News Website, December 28, 2018: https://spacenews.com/change-4-landing-to-be-a-step-along-a-road-of-lunar-exploration-for-china/

10. ‘Israel’s privately funded moon mission lifts off’, O. Liebermann and James Masters, CNN News, February 22, 2019: https://www.cnn.com/2019/02/22/middleeast/israel-moon-spacecraft-beresheet-launch-scli-intl/index.html

11. Indian Moon Landing Chandrayaan-2 Program Wikipedia site: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chandrayaan-2

12. ‘Japan’s Hayabusa 2 successfully touches down on Ryugu asteroid’, K. Lyons, and I. Sample, Guardian Newspaper, 21 Feb 2019: https://www.theguardian.com/science/2019/feb/22/japans-hayabusa-2-successfully-touches-down-on-ryugu-asteroid

13. ‘President Trump announces that U.S. military will soon have a ‘space force’ to wage war beyond planet Earth’, D. Slattery and C. Sommerfeldt, New York Daily News, Mar 13, 2018 http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/trump-announces-u-s-military-space-force-article-1.3872617

14. ‘Adhesion mechanism of space-climbing robot based on discrete element and dynamics’,

15. X. Hou, Y. Su, S. Jiang, L. Li, T. Chen, L. Sun, and Z. Deng, Advances in Mechanical Engineering, 2018, Vol. 10(4) 1–15

16. ‘Multibody models with flexible components for inflatable space structures’, M. Petrolo, G. Governale, D. Catelani, and E. Carrera, http://www.techno-press.org/?journal=aas&subpage=7

17. ISSN: 2287-5271, 201818. ‘Programmatic and Procedural Approach to Simulating Landing

Dynamics of a Lunar Landing and Ascent Vehicle’, S.V. Borzykh, and V.V. Voronin, Space Science and Technology, No. 2 (21) / 2018

19. ‘Design of a Deployable Structure for a Lunar Greenhouse Module’, V. Vrakking, Delft University of Technology, Netherlands, Masters Thesis, 2014

20. ‘Dynamic Instabilities Imparted by CubeSat Propulsion’, T. J. Cordeiro, MIT Masters Thesis, USA, 2016

 

26 | Engineering Reality Magazine