Our design will use high-stiffness composite materials for a metrology frame. The objective is to provide a stable, yet lightweight structure that can withstand the severe vibration and shock loads experienced during launch conditions. Key design features of the optical box are stability, stiffness, and cost. In space experiments, mass is often a critical issue.
Designers draw on aluminum or beryllium to create a lightweight platform.
Others first estimated that the optical box mass, constructed from aluminum, would be 9.4 kg. Through design refinements, it was judged that this figure could be reduced to 5.67 kg. However, this mass still exceeded the desired mass budget. A quasi-isotropic layup of this material is 1.5 times stiffer than aluminum. Preliminary analyses have confirmed the design from both static and dynamic considerations.