We supported a very talented team of engineers to develop the Lightning Imaging Sensor (LIS) Payload currently installed on the International Space Station (ISS). LIS, managed by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), is used to acquire and investigate the distribution and variability of cloud-to-ground and cloud-to-cloud lightning.
Since lightning is one of the responses of the atmosphere to thermodynamic forcing, the data collection by the LIS Payload is used to investigate the electrical, microphysical, and kinematic properties of tropical weather systems. We performed the stress and dynamics analysis on the LIS Payload flown on the SpaceX Dragon Launch Vehicle.
Using Finite Element Analysis (FEA) and classical hand analysis techniques, we conducted detailed assessments on the flight hardware and the interfaces to the launch vehicle. We also performed all of the fatigue, fracture, and damage tolerance assessments on the entire payload, including several fracture critical components. All of these analyses were documented to support the NASA flightworthiness process.