Technological Challenges For Manufacturing LARES Satellite
- Paper number
IAC-09.C2.I.5
- Author
Prof. Antonio Paolozzi, University of Rome "La Sapienza", Italy
- Coauthor
Prof. Ignazio Ciufolini, Università del Salento, Italy
- Coauthor
Mr. Francesco Passeggio, OMPM srl, Italy
- Coauthor
Mr. Laura Caputo, OMPM srl, Italy
- Year
2009
- Abstract
Due to the peculiar alloy used for LARES satellite some concerns arise about the machinability of the material. Although several producers can provide several types of tungsten alloy, and there is a market that uses bulk tungsten material, to our knowledge this material, very seldom used in space, was never machined with tight manufacturing tolerances and severe surface finish. Consequently several tests for machinability and polishing have been performed. Particular care has been adopted for manufacturing spherical cavities that are used to interface the separation system. Also the screws and the retainer ring for the cube corner reflector mounting system are difficult items to be manufactured in tungsten alloy, being the screw shaft and the ring thickness very small. Special tool for grabbing and moving the semifinished sphere on the tooling machines will be designed. The industrial production process including programming, manufacturing and testing will be described. Some breadboards have been manufactured to address possible manufacturing problems.
- Abstract document
- Manuscript document
IAC-09.C2.I.5.pdf (🔒 authorized access only).
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