The Space Infrared Telescope Facility structural design requirements

An effort is currently being carried out by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) to study mission feasibility and to define functional requirements for various subsystems of the Space Infrared Telescope Facility (SIRTF). As a major part of this effort, structural design requirements have been derived based on the stated mission objectives. Design concerns addressed by these requirements include the limits on mass and location of the center of gravity, launch stiffness and dynamic characteristics, design loads and analysis criteria, survivability of the TITAN IV/Centaur launch environment, thermal control for maintaining a near absolute-zero operating temperature, and helium cryogen volume and storage for a five-year mission. To illustrate how the structural design requirements can be met, a point design of the SIRTF flight hardware system was developed, modeled, and analyzed. A description of the key features of this point design, along with pertinent modeling and analysis results, are discussed in this Paper.