SPECIFIC CONSTRUCTION TASKS William V. McRae, Jr., Rockwell International 3322 South Memorial Parkway Huntsville, Alabama 35801 The issue of Satellite Power System (SPS) "technical feasibility" encompasses not only the embodiment of hardware technology within viable engineering designs, but also the development of feasible operational concepts starting with the mining of resources on earth and ending with the fully constructed satellite in orbit. The evolution of this end-to-end operations analysis begins with the conceptualization of specific construction tasks. The definition of construction tasks - at least initially - must assume processes and machines somewhat analogous to those used on earth. By so doing, one can achieve a reasonable first-order basis for estimating personnel requirements, assembly rates, and material flow demands. From these data, crew sizes, construction schedules, and space logistics traffic models are developed by further analysis. In turn, the on-earth requirements for launch site warehousing and propellant storage, logistics schedules, manufacturing/production and, ultimately, basic resources evolve. Figure 1 illustrates the logic flow of these required functional analyses for both the rectenna and the satellite. Figure 1. Major Tasks of the End-to-End Analysis Numerous feedbacks and iterations are required in the analyses of construction tasks. In the case of the satellite, common sense dictates that the structural framework must be assembled first, but one also recognizes that the framework is not designed for earth loads and thus cannot support heavy equipments being moved about freely. Also there is the inherent requirement for minimizing construction crew complements and the time they must spen in space. When these two factors are taken into account, attempts are made to combine as many construction tasks as possible and to automate or semi-automate the most repetitive ones. The satellite design concept places yet another constraint on the construction task.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTU5NjU0Mg==