A spacecraft onboard equipment and payload storage system comprising a spacecraft having an interior volume, wherein said interior volume comprises a interior annular portion; a annular storage support track connected to said spacecraft within said spacecraft's interior annular portion; and at least one storage module that is movably connected to said annular storage support track.

A method is provided for realigning or relieving mechanical stress in a spacecraft frame. The process includes providing a spacecraft which includes at least two frame subsections connected by a mechanical connector. The mechanical connector provides both a soft dock connection which mechanically connects the two frame subsections but allows relative movement between the two frame sections and a hard dock connection which mechanically connects the two frame subsections but does not allow relative movement between the two frame sections. Once in space, a controller causes the mechanical connector to transition from a hard dock connection to a soft dock connection, which is maintained for a predetermined time period to realign or relieve stress within the spacecraft frame. Thereafter, the controller causes the mechanical connector to transition from the soft dock connection back to the hard dock connection.

The invention relates to a device for unfolding a rolled-up elongate hollow member having: at least one elongate hollow member which has two elongate shell member halves, and an unfolding mechanism which has a fixed base structure and a winding core which is rotatably supported on the base structure and on which the at least one elongate hollow member in a first state is rolled up and compressed and which by rotating moves and unfolds the elongate hollow member from the first state into an unrolled and unfolded second state so that an elongate hollow space is formed between the two shell member halves of the at least one elongate hollow member, wherein the at least one elongate hollow member has as a first end a hollow member root, via which the elongate hollow member is secured to the rotatably supported winding core, wherein the first shell member half of the at least one elongate hollow member is secured in the region of the hollow member root to the rotatably supported winding core, and the unfolding mechanism has an expansion mechanism which in the region of the hollow member root is in engagement with the second shell member half and which moves the second shell member half in the region of the hollow member root away from the rotatably supported winding core in order to expand the cross-section of the at least one elongate hollow member in the region of the hollow member root when the elongate hollow member is unrolled from the rotatably supported winding core.

The disclosure provides a configurable-mass rideshare dispenser for a rideshare adapter employable with a LV. In one example, the configurable-mass rideshare dispenser includes: (1) a modular chassis having a plurality of walls, wherein each of the plurality of walls includes multiple internal mounts operable to mount at multiple candidate locations a rideshare payload, its associated attachment/deployment mechanisms, signal processing circuitry, and at least one additional mass object, and (2) at least one door coupled to at least one of the plurality of walls, wherein the signal processing circuitry is operable to provide deployment sequencing that operates the at least one door.

A method in a spacecraft for transporting propellant to be consumed by a thruster includes storing the propellant in the spacecraft in a solid state during at least a portion of a take-off procedure and supplying the propellant to the thruster in a liquid or vaporous state when the spacecraft is in space.

Atmospheric thrust stages, multi-stage launch systems including the same, and related methods. A multi-stage launch system includes a launch vehicle configured to transport a payload to a payload destination. The launch vehicle includes an atmospheric thrust stage (ATS) with a plurality of airbreathing engines configured to provide thrust to the launch vehicle for a vertical launch of the launch vehicle The ATS is configured to be retrieved and reused subsequent to returning to Earth. A method of transporting a payload to a payload destination includes powering a launch vehicle that includes an ATS and a second stage by providing thrust with a plurality of airbreathing engines of the ATS to propel the launch vehicle, decoupling the second stage from the ATS, powering the second stage to transport the payload to the payload destination, and returning the ATS to Earth.

A spacecraft includes a plurality of deployable module elements, at least one of the deployable module elements including a robotic manipulator, the spacecraft being reconfigurable from a launch configuration to an on-orbit configuration. In the launch configuration, the deployable module elements are disposed in a launch vehicle in a first arrangement. In the on-orbit configuration, the deployable module elements are disposed in a second configuration. The spacecraft is self-assembled by the robotic manipulator reconfiguring the spacecraft from the launch configuration, through a transition configuration, to the on-orbit configuration. The deployable module elements may be in a stacked arrangement in the launch configuration and may be in a side-by-side arrangement in the on-orbit configuration.

A spacecraft includes a main body structure and a plurality of deployable modular reflector elements, the spacecraft being reconfigurable from a launch configuration to an on-orbit configuration. In the launch configuration, the modular reflector elements are disposed in a storage system that includes an arrangement for supporting the modular reflector elements with respect to dynamic launch loads. In the on-orbit configuration, in some implementations, an assembly of the plurality of modular reflector elements forms a large-aperture, offset fed, reflector, the reflector being coupled with a boom or yoke with the main body structure by way of a two or three axis positioning mechanism configured to steer the reflector with respect to the main body structure. In some implementations, in the on-orbit configuration, the plurality of modular reflector elements are assembled to form a large aperture reflective surface that is self-supporting.

A process to design an attitude control system (ACS) controller in each of a plurality of joined entities includes identifying a worst case configuration as a design-to configuration as one or more configurations in a given set S of configurations required for a spacecraft. For the design-to configuration, the process includes deriving one or more system equations in a functional form of equations to determine intermediate design parameters that represent effective proportional and derivative gains of the combined controller, Kp and Kd, respectively. The process also includes determining the design parameters of the ACS controller, namely, gains Kq and K and stiffness and damping coefficients, Ks and Cd respectively of all the interfaces between each of the plurality of joined entities, from the intermediate design parameters Kp and Kd. The process further includes programming the ACS controller with selected values of the design parameters for matrices Kq and K and selecting springs with stiffness Ks and dampers with damping coefficient Cd for all interfaces between each of the plurality of joined entities. The process includes iterating the computer-implemented process after incrementing a convergence requirement parameter threshold when the control performance is not acceptable and until the system achieves acceptable performance, and programming the ACS controller for each of the plurality of joined entities.

The Guideless Resilient Androgynous Serial Port (GRASP) mechanism provides an androgynous mechanical and electrical interface that can be tailored to the meet the requirements of a given application. Each mechanism is equipped with physical connections (spring pins) for both power and data transmission between modules.