1995

Vidqvist, Jouni

The structural integrity of a space instrument defines its ability to withstand the launch environment. To ensure the continuous functional performance and high reliability of a space instrument, the quality of the structural design has to be evaluated. The methods applied are structural analysis and verification testing. This report describes the techniques used at VTT Automation Space Technology for the structural analysis of spacecraft instruments. The results of the structural analysis of the SWAN (Solar Wind Anisotropy) instrument are given as an example. The SWAN is a space instrument for ESA s SOHO spacecraft. The analyses were done by VTT Automation Space Technology (then Instrument Laboratory) at the Centre of Scientific Computing (TLP) in Finland. The verification testing was performed at Intespace, Toulouse.