Space CAE - The First and Final Frontier - MSC Software Corporation
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Space CAE –
The First and
Final Frontier …
By Doug Neill and Keith Hanna, MSC Software
I
n the development of any technology, it is recognized that Introduction
the right catalyst can propel a nascent capability into a
necessary component of progress. And, 56 years ago, As we approach the 50th anniversary of the first NASA Apollo
finite element analysis (FEA) really took off (some might say 11 moon landing when Commander Neil Armstrong uttered
quite literally so!) with the invention of MSC’s Nastran FEA the words, “One small step for (a) man, one giant leap for
solver for the NASA American moon landing program mankind”, we thought it was worth looking backwards (a
(reference 1, 2). little nostalgically) and forwards (boldly, and with vision) to
22 | Engineering Reality Magazine
the application of CAE in the space industry yesterday, was possible. It was a resounding success just after Christmas
today and in the future. We believe that we are approaching 1968. And the Moon Landings made history in 1969 as we all
another golden age of both space travel and space know. If you want to read of the sobering speech that President
exploration by humans, where technology advances are Richard Nixon had prepared should the Apollo 11 mission have
democratizing and expanding space exploration beyond the failed, check out the Space.com article (reference 3) to show
realms of national governments. This development will how risky this Mission was that made history.
necessitate even more CAE simulations than ever before, in
ever more challenging environments, where no other ‘Cold War’ Space Race Drives
cost-effective solution exists than CAE for predicting the Adoption of CAE
performance and mitigating risks of failure and expensive
write-offs. What a time to be alive, and to be a CAE engineer After the Second World War, and with the fall of the ‘Iron
in the space industry! Curtain’ - as Sir Winston Churchill called it - across Europe,
the world went into a ‘Cold War’. As with nearly all wars,
It is worth pointing out that following the success of the Soviet science and engineering got an unexpected dividend;
Sputnik space program in the 1950s and 1960s, and U.S. competing governments started to embrace simulation
President John F. Kennedy’s famous 1962 speech imploring his software for both design of defense related nuclear missiles,
fellow Americans to get a man onto the moon and back by and space exploration, in a race between the Western
1970, the subsequent tragedy of three Apollo 1 astronauts Powers and Soviet Russia for technological world dominance
dying on their launch pad in 1967 meant that the 1969 moon and global propaganda. Indeed, it can be argued that the
landing was inherently very risky. In an excellent radio space industry, and its associated missile and engine design
documentary broadcast last year by the BBC in the UK challenges, were probably one of the biggest catalysts for
(reference 2), the manned 1968 Apollo 8 moon-orbiting mission CAE advances in the mid to late 20th century, and ultimately
was a major precursor to the Apollo 11 moon landing. It even the emergence of the commercial CAE industry as we know it
resulted in the now famous ‘Earthrise’ photograph (left) taken by today (see references 4,5,6).
astronaut William Anders, that helped to fuel the environmental
movement on earth and showed how precarious, unique, and Dr. Richard H. MacNeal (pictured left, sitting on the right)
beautiful our blue planet is in the vast darkness of our solar founded MSC along with Robert Schwendler (not shown in this
system. This mission was the first time that humans left the orbit photo) in 1963 under the name of MacNeal-Schwendler
of their mother planet with the risk of not coming back. The Corporation. Under their leadership, MSC developed its first
sling shot trajectory Apollo 8 took around the moon was structural analysis software called SADSAM (Structural Analysis
hazardous but essential to show that a manned moon landing by Digital Simulation of Analog Methods) and they were deeply
Volume IX - Summer 2019 | mscsoftware.com | 23
involved in the early efforts of the aerospace industry to improve It is less well known, or even appreciated, in this the half
early finite element analysis technology. In response to a 1965 century anniversary year of the Apollo 15 manned mission to
request for a proposal from the National Aeronautics and Space the Moon with Neil Armstrong’s first step on the lunar
Administration (NASA) for a general purpose structural analysis landscape (on July 20th 1969), that the application of CAE in
program, Dr. MacNeal contributed greatly to the early efforts of space has been going on diligently and quietly for the last 50
the aerospace industry by successfully simulating on-the-ground years. Moreover, MSC Software’s tools and solutions have
physical testing through computing to deliver the right answers been in the vanguard of modern space industry simulations
and right physics to take humans to the moon (reference 1). The and related equipment design - from multi-body dynamics to
core of MSC Nastran was the code that NASA used to acoustics, FEA to CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics), and,
structurally analyze the Apollo Space Program. In 1971, MSC latterly, materials analysis and novel manufacturing techniques
Software released a commercial version of the same software (like additive manufacturing). MSC’s unprecedented and unique
and since then its value to society (both tangible and intangible) co-simulation capabilities in CAE have allowed for a very wide
in the creation, extension and spread of FEA simulation range of some of the most accurate and reliable engineering
technologies was calculated by a NASA valuation of MSC simulations possible for the space industry yesterday and
Nastran in 2003 to be $10B in economic value (reference 2). today (see Figure 1).
Aerodynamics Design & Sizing Manufacturing Process Multibody Dynamics Structural Inegrity during
• Drag, lift, torque, shocks • CAD cleaning Simulation • Forces mission
• Aerothermal heating • Parts & Assembly based modelling • Additive Manufacturing • Loads • Loads
• Avionics & fluidics • Structural performance analysis • Joining, Foming Assembly
• System dynamics
Advanced Materials
• Mechanical and thermal properties of Satellite separation
metal & composite microstructures
• Material Life Cycle Management • Forces
• Virtual allowables • Loads
• Effect of defects
• Light weighting
Orbital Heating Electronics Thermo-Mechanical Controls Vibro-Acoustic Analyses
• Thermal Radiation • Thermal Management • Analysis • Systems
• Thermal analysis • Payload survival
• Fatigue
• Launch Loads
• Virtual Testing
Figure 1: Assortment of Multiphysics CAE applications of MSC Software tools in the Space Industry today
24 | Engineering Reality Magazine
Unprecedented Interest in Space Travel, Further Moon Landings
and Interplanetary Exploration
Space has today again become truly a frontier for technology advancement with
larger-than-life multi-billionaires like Elon Musk (SpaceX, Tesla) making ever more
extravagant claims and stunts - a Tesla car playing David Bowie tracks on an infinite
loop is flying into deep space as we write - and hosting regular press conferences with
amazing projections for what his company will do next in space. Richard Branson
(Virgin Galactic) and Jeff Bezos (Blue Origin, Amazon) - the world’s richest man - are
jumping on the space bandwagon and are in a race to successfully launch passenger-
carrying suborbital flights from earth by a commercial airline for the first time (references
7,8). The emergence of Musk’s privately owned and very profitable SpaceX
corporation, founded in 2003 to make money from space, has revolutionized the
commercial satellite industry, but ever more ambitious plans for geostationary
telescopes, lunar polar manned space stations, human colonies on Mars, and even
plans for lunar mining and smart factories are being explored. There are even six
geostationary satellites in orbit around the planet Mars today.
Figure 2: Chinese Robotic Lander was
simulated in MSC Adams and connected
Emerging nations like China, Israel and India are staking claims to space. The recent to EDEM for Lunar terrain modeling
landing of the Chang’e 6 Lunar Module and Rover on the dark side of the Moon in
December 2018 illustrates this (reference 9), the privately funded SpaceIL craft that set
off for a soft landing on the moon in February 2019 (reference 10), and India’s ambitious
Chandrayaan-2 Mission to put a man back on the moon by the end of 2021 (reference
11). Japan has a healthy space program and its Hayabusa-2 lander successfully
intercepted the Ryugu asteroid in February 2019 (reference 12). Even President Donald
Trump announced plans in 2018 for a US Space Force, to be the 6th branch of the
American military (reference 13).
Figure 3: Italian Flexible Membrane Space
We reviewed a broad sweep of space related projects using MSC Software solutions Station Simulated in Adams and MSC
over the last few years and noted some cool applications being tackled today. Nastran
Researchers in Harbin University in China (reference 14) last year successfully coupled
MSC’s Adams multi-body dynamics solver to EDEM from DEM Solutions in a co-
simulation chain to model a novel new spider-like robotic lander vehicle capable of
dealing with rough terrain on other planets (Figure 2). Research at the Politecnico di
Torino in Italy last year also analyzed multibody mechanisms for inflatable structures in
manned space applications using the Adams and MSC Nastran SOL400 co-
simulation solver (reference 15). Their numerical results showed what was possible for
the inflatable manned space module with rigid components and a flexible coating
made of Kevlar (Figure 3), and led to some recommendations related to its optimal Figure 4: Russian Lunar Landing & Ascent
Vehicle dynamics simulated in Adams
structural performance.
Many researchers in the last 10 years have used MSC Software to examine the
dynamics of lunar landers and ascent vehicles and a typical study can be seen in Figure
4 from the S.P. Korolev Rocket and Space Public Corporation Energia (RSC Energia) in
Russia in 2018. They used Adams coupled with Python scripts to look at the dynamics
of landing and taking off from the lunar surface. A MSc Thesis involving a design study
at the University of Delft in the Netherlands to investigate the optimal structural design
for an inflatable lunar greenhouse module was carried out in 2014 (reference 17). The
student verified preliminary design calculations and compliance with requirements for
thermal and load-bearing structural properties of a Kevlar composite, using the FEA tool
MSC Nastran (Figure 5). And, finally, a Masters Thesis from the Massachusetts Institute
of Technology in America in 2016 (reference 18) employed SimXpert and MSC Nastran
to investigate whether a CubeSat satellite design that uses a combination of propulsion
Figure 5: Dutch University proposal for an
and solar arrays stresses the dynamics of the solar panels and their hinges that hold
Inflatable Lunar Greenhouse simulated in
them in place (Figure 6). MSC Nastran
Volume IX - Summer 2019 | mscsoftware.com | 25
References
1. ‘Getting the Right Answers”, Article by D. Gallello and D. Neill,
MSC Website, 2017: https://www.mscsoftware.com/sites/default/
files/Getting_Right_Answers.pdf
2. ‘The NASA Heritage of Creativity’, Article by Theron M. Bradley, Jr.,
NASA Chief Engineer and Chair of the ICB, Annual Report of the
NASA Inventions & Contributions Board, 2003: https://www.nasa.
gov/pdf/251093main_The_NASA_Heritage_Of_Creativity.pdf
3. ‘The Engineering Design Revolution – The People, Companies and
Computer Systems That Changed Forever the Practice of
Engineering’ by D.E. Weisberg: http://www.cadhistory.net/
4. ‘Christmas on the Far Side of the Moon’, BBC Radio Podcast, 27th
December 2018: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0001qn1
5. ‘What If Apollo 11 Failed? President Nixon Had Speech Ready’, by
N. T. Redd, July 22nd 2014, Space.com website: https://www.
space.com/26604-apollo-11-failure-nixon-speech.html
6. ‘The History of MSC Software’, YouTube Video, March 8th 2018:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ueFybc6XXmo
7. Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic Wikipedia site: https://en.
wikipedia.org/wiki/Virgin_Galactic
8. Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin Wikipedia site: https://en.wikipedia.org/
wiki/Blue_Origin
9. ‘Chang’e-4 landing to be a step along a road of lunar exploration
for China’, A. Jones, Space News Website, December 28, 2018:
https://spacenews.com/change-4-landing-to-be-a-step-along-a-
road-of-lunar-exploration-for-china/
10. ‘Israel’s privately funded moon mission lifts off’, O. Liebermann
and James Masters, CNN News, February 22, 2019: https://www.
cnn.com/2019/02/22/middleeast/israel-moon-spacecraft-
beresheet-launch-scli-intl/index.html
11. Indian Moon Landing Chandrayaan-2 Program Wikipedia site:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chandrayaan-2
12. ‘Japan’s Hayabusa 2 successfully touches down on Ryugu
Figure 6: US MIT study on CubeSat Satellite Solar Panels simulated
asteroid’, K. Lyons, and I. Sample, Guardian Newspaper, 21 Feb
in SimXpert
2019: https://www.theguardian.com/science/2019/feb/22/
japans-hayabusa-2-successfully-touches-down-on-ryugu-asteroid
13. ‘President Trump announces that U.S. military will soon have a
‘space force’ to wage war beyond planet Earth’, D. Slattery and C.
Sommerfeldt, New York Daily News, Mar 13, 2018 http://www.
Summary & Conclusions nydailynews.com/news/politics/trump-announces-u-s-military-
space-force-article-1.3872617
14. ‘Adhesion mechanism of space-climbing robot based on discrete
Fifty years after the first moon landing by Neil Armstrong on the element and dynamics’,
Apollo 11 Mission, it is fair to say that the exploration (and 15. X. Hou, Y. Su, S. Jiang, L. Li, T. Chen, L. Sun, and Z. Deng,
Advances in Mechanical Engineering, 2018, Vol. 10(4) 1–15
exploitation) of space, our neighboring planets, and moons, for
16. ‘Multibody models with flexible components for inflatable space
commercial means has never been so topical, or more structures’, M. Petrolo, G. Governale, D. Catelani, and E. Carrera,
lucrative. Assorted commercial players in the space industry http://www.techno-press.org/?journal=aas&subpage=7
have started to enter the market in the last 20 years bringing 17. ISSN: 2287-5271, 2018
18. ‘Programmatic and Procedural Approach to Simulating Landing
down the cost of participation. Polar moon bases, lunar mining, Dynamics of a Lunar Landing and Ascent Vehicle’, S.V. Borzykh,
landing on asteroids, and colonies on planet Mars are all being and V.V. Voronin, Space Science and Technology, No. 2 (21) / 2018
examined as feasible opportunities. Even in situ 3D printer 19. ‘Design of a Deployable Structure for a Lunar Greenhouse Module’,
V. Vrakking, Delft University of Technology, Netherlands, Masters
facilities, lunar factories, chemical processing facilities, and Thesis, 2014
lunar greenhouses are being proposed and designed using 20. ‘Dynamic Instabilities Imparted by CubeSat Propulsion’, T. J.
CAE before ever being built. MSC Software was there at the Cordeiro, MIT Masters Thesis, USA, 2016
start of Space CAE half a century ago delivering accurate FEA
simulations; we continue to play a big part in the emerging
commercial space industry, and the future is looking ever more
exciting for space engineers in the 21st century.
26 | Engineering Reality Magazine
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