Study Report: LAMP 2b (Discman) Design Analysis Cycle 2 Level 0 Design Study

ACO performed a follow-up trade study to the team’s previous design study of a laser welding experiment, with the goal of adding additional weld capability to the same mission profile and launch vehicle selection.

Study Goals: The goal of this study was to add additional welding capability to the previous study design and explore how to improve the capability built upon in the previous study. The customer’s desire was for the study team to achieve this by adding additional lasers and weld samples to the design and observe the mass and volume impacts of this new design. Prior to the study, two different configurations were sketched out and those became the two options that the study team worked with.

Each configuration featured two lasers in a different layout within the Blue Origin full-stack payload locker. The ACO team then reran their analysis at the same level of detail as the previous study (Level 0) to make sure the design still had the adequate power necessary to run, the thermal load did not exceed the launch provider’s specification, and the volume of the new components could fit within the constraints of the full-stack locker. The mass limit was very important to the design and the goal was to remain as close to the 68 kg limit of the payload locker as possible.

With only about 10 kg of mass margin from the previous study, this design was very likely to exceed the 68 kg limit. However, the customer accepted that risk in order to better understand the mass implications of the additional laser with the thought that if the additional capability was worth it, perhaps extra funding could be pursued and another launch option could be found later down the line.

An additional task was requested by the customer as well – a design that incorporated a small vacuum pump to the previous design. To prevent complicating the current design work, this vacuum pump would be implemented into the old design and be completely separate from this new dual-laser design.