Deployable Tensegrity Lunar Tower

TL;DR

This paper presents a novel tensegrity tower design optimized for lunar conditions, demonstrating its feasibility for supporting payloads in moon mining operations through non-linear optimization considering lunar gravity and structural constraints.

Contribution

Introduces a deployable tensegrity tower design optimized via non-linear methods for lunar applications, accounting for multiple structural failure modes and global buckling constraints.

Findings

Optimized tensegrity tower supports lunar payloads effectively.

Design reduces structural mass compared to traditional solutions.

Feasibility demonstrated through a detailed case study.

Abstract

A tensegrity tower design to support a given payload for the moon mining operation is proposed in this paper. A non-linear optimization problem for the minimal-mass structure design is posed and solved, subject to the yielding constraints for strings and yielding and buckling constraints for bars in the presence of lunar gravity. The optimization variables for this non-linear problem are structural complexity and pre-stress in the strings. Apart from local failure constraints of yielding and buckling, global buckling is also considered. The structure designed as a deployable tower is a TnD1 tensegrity structure. A case study demonstrates the feasibility and advantage of the tower design. The principles developed in this paper are also applicable for building other structures on the Earth or other planets.