Development of the Lightweight Mission Specialist Seats for the Space Shuttle Orbiter NASA Johnson Space Center

Format:

Conference/Event

Author/Creator:

Hansen, Christopher P., author.

Conference Name:

General, Corporate & Regional Aviation Meeting & Exposition (1997-04-29 : Wichita, Kansas, United States)

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource

Place of Publication:

Warrendale, PA SAE International 1997

Summary:

The Space Shuttle Lightweight Mission Specialist Seat (LWS-MS) is a crew seat used by mission specialists who fly aboard the Space Shuttle. A team of NASA and Lockheed-Martin engineers from the Johnson Space Center (JSC) in Houston, Texas, redesigned the MS seats and reduced the weight of the seats by 52%. In addition to weight reduction, the seats were designed to tolerate stringent load conditions, inspired by new FAA regulations requiring new seats to undergo dynamic testing and floor warping demonstrations. This paper describes the analysis methods used to predict the behavior of the seat. Detailed finite element models, developed using MSC/NASTRAN, and dynamic models using finite element and rigid-body information combined in a program called DADS, were used to accurately characterize the behavior of the seat before testing even began. This analysis technique led to significant weight reductions, as well as safety improvements in the seat

Notes:

Vendor supplied data

Publisher Number:

971472

Access Restriction:

Restricted for use by site license