Methodology of determination of balancing weights mounting places inside spacecraft compartments

The paper presents a methodology for determining the mounting places of balancing weights inside spacecraft compartments, based on the use of a combination of methods of analytical and computational geometry, mathematical programming and computer graphics. The use of balancing weights is necessary to ensure the required position of the center of gravity of the compartment and the product as a whole. When using the methodology, the problems of ensuring a minimum mass of balancing weights and reducing the labor intensity of developing options for their installation are solved to speed up the preparation and approval of design documentation. The balancing weight placement zone is considered as a set of spatial regions free from compartment structural elements and other component parts. To minimize the overall mass of the balancing weights by determining their placement locations on a coordinate grid, the balancing weight placement problem is proposed to be represented as a linear programming problem. For testing, a conical compartment of a product with a spherical bottom was used as an example. It was determined that the balancing weight placement zone should be located near the junction of the bottom and the hull shell. The configuration of the placement zone was identified, taking into account the surrounding structural elements. The coordinates for placing the balancing weights were determined, and their masses were selected. Testing has showed the performance of the proposed methodology and the algorithm based on it. Effective use of the methodology is possible with the availability of a specialized calculation software package.