Structural Design - NASA

The Space Shuttle a mostly reusable, human-rated launch vehicle,spacecraft, space habitat, laboratory, re-entry vehicle, andaircraft was an unprecedented Structural engineering challenge. The Design had to meet several demands, which resulted in innovativesolutions. The vehicle needed to be highly reliable for environmentsthat could not be simulated on Earth or fully modeled analytically for combined mechanical and thermal loads. It had to accommodatepayloads that were not defined or characterized. It needed to be weightefficient by employing a greater use of advanced composite materials,and it had to rely on fracture mechanics for Design with acceptable life requirements. It also had to be certified to meet strength and liferequirements by innovative methods.

low-strength Thermal Protection System tiles. Composite materials beyond the state of the art were needed. The crew compartment had to be placed into the airframe such that the pressurized volume would effectively “float.” And it was impractical to test the full airframe under combined mechanical and thermal loads. Thousands of analytical ...

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  Thermal, Ansas

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