Optimal design of integrated main supporting structure with ultra-light weight and high stability for space camera

To ensure excellent performance of a micro reflective space camera, an integrated main supporting structure (IMSS) combined with a thin-walled tube and a supporting rod structure design is applied in this study. Firstly, this paper covers the design and comparison of the performance of three traditional types of main supporting structures (MSS), including thin-walled cylinder type, rod-supporting type and truss type. Then, an IMSS combined with a thin-walled tube and a supporting rod structure is described. In addition, a multi-objective integrated optimization method which allows automatic modeling, analysis, calculation and optimization is proposed. Further, the influence of the supporting rod angle on the structure performance is studied, the performance of stiffness, deformation and mass is better when the height ratio of the rod-structure and the thin-walled cylinder is 6:1. The IMSS mass is only 0.56 kilograms, that is 11.2 % of the total mass of the payload, and the maximum deformation on the supporting bar is no more than 4.5 nm. Finally, the IMSS performance is analyzed by the finite element method and experimental verification, and the first order frequency is up to 192.7 Hz. The degree of light weight is significantly better than that of the traditional structures. The results of the experiment further prove the stability of the IMSS.