RELIABILITY IMPROVEMENT OF LOW EARTH ORBIT MICRO SATELLITE

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Ph.D. Candidate, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, AL-Azhar University, Cairo, Egypt.

2 Adjunct Prof. NexSat Project Manager, NARSS, Cairo, Egypt.

3 Professor, Dept. Mechatronics, German University in Cairo (GUC), Cairo, Egypt and Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, AL-Azhar University, Cairo, Egypt.

Abstract

ABSTRACT
Satellite mass and reliability are two contradicting parameters affecting the satellite
cost. To get a cost effective satellite, it would be necessary to compromise between
low mass and high reliability. This challenge attracts the interest of many space
institutions. This study presents an iterative simple technique to calculate and
improve satellite reliability with low redundancy for the benefits of low mass. The
failure contribution factor plays a strong role in the identification of the weak path
which leads to system failure and propose the candidate component(s) to be
duplicated. The present technique presents the failure contribution percentage of
each component to satellite system failure and order them based on severity.
Depending on the results the designer has to decide continue redundant or stop the
process of improvement. The proposed technique had applied to a case study as a
proof of concept. The work result shows how the proposed technique is simple and
highly effective. More investigation will be applied to a real satellite project in the
nearest future.

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