Design of a flexible spoke for a spacecraft umbrella antenna

Umbrella type antennas are often used in modern spacecraft. Their advantage is the possibility of compact placement during orbital insertion. At the same time, they must provide the necessary stability when deployed in space. Antenna stiffness mainly depends on the stiffness of the spokes, the design of which is a complex task of scientific research. Spacecraft antennas must provide functional performance and, at the same time, have a minimum mass. The cardinal direction of improvement of space antennas consists in application of new structural materials. Composites are characterized by high specific mechanical properties, which allow to create structures with a high degree of weight perfection. The problem is related to the presence of a large number of design parameters that affect the performance of composite structures in a complex way. Determining the optimal combination of these parameters for each structure and a particular design case leads to the need for a complex numerical experiment based on specialized algorithms, methods and programs. The aim of the study is to design a composite spoke for the umbrella antenna of a spacecraft, providing the required load-bearing capacity and maximum stiffness at a given mass limit of the structure. It involves the development of finite element models of the composite spoke of various designs, which would include the possibility of optimizing the design parameters by the criteria of strength, load-bearing capacity and stiffness. As a result of numerical experiment, the ways of increasing the bearing capacity and stiffness of the deployed spacecraft antenna are determined.