Development of a 3D Future Launcher Architecture Tool

Abstract: The motivation of the thesis is to decrease the time waste that is caused by repetitive processes during the first phase analyses of new launcher projects. Currently, the feasibility check of a launcher project consumes time and effort due to the communication traffic between many disciplines. The thesis provides a tool that performs the first analyses of custom launchers without the need of CAD modelling of the components. 3D Launcher Architecture Tool is developed to be able to analyze many different launcher architectures for advanced projects within a short time. To achieve that, a graphical user interface is developed that performs mass, center of gravity, and moments of inertia calculations; visualizes the launcher components with respect to the user’s input; and exports the data as text file that can be used in CATIA to autonomously model parts according to the output parameters from the tool. Even though there are comparable existing tools, none of them found 100% suitable for the ArianeGroup’s usage; thus, 3D Future Launcher Architecture Tool is created. It is capable of performing the fundamentally specified features, yet highly open for improvements.