Satellite multidisciplinary design optimization with a high-fidelity model

Satellite system design is a multidisciplinary design process that considers the space mission, payload, structure, orbit and attitude dynamics, thermal control, communication, power supply, and other parameters. Designers must balance tradeoffs among many essential systems, which can take a remarkable amount of time. Researchers have applied multidisciplinary design optimization (MDO) technology to satellite design mostly with empirical formulas. Through the use of a high-fidelity model, more coupling can be considered. Accordingly, more data and information exchanging will be brought in, which will increase the computation complexity exponentially. Therefore, the coupling relationship needs to be organized efficiently to reduce the computation time. In this Note, a remote sensing satellite system is designed with an MDO technique using an FE model.