Structural Sizing for the Lightweight Surface Manipulation System (LSMS) Architecture

As the NASA Artemis campaign matures, the need for scalable lunar lander offloading capabilities becomes more apparent and pressing. NASA expects to send landers with payload mass capacity ranging from 100s of kg to 10,000s of kg and will require payload offloading solutions as part of the logistics chain. The Lightweight Surface Manipulation System (LSMS) is one proposed scalable solution to the gap in reusable payload offloading solutions. The LSMS is a lightweight, scalable truss-based crane capable of offloading large payload masses while consuming a small fraction of the overall lander payload mass capacity. To best utilize the capabilities enabled by the scalable LSMS architecture, project planners need to be able to easily select and size a LSMS for a mission’s specific offloading needs. This paper describes three unique LSMS configurations: a one-link LSMS, a two-link LSMS, and a two-link LSMS with self-offloading capability. The fundamental governing equations to select and size the optimal LSMS for specific use cases is presented for each configuration. An LSMS sized for offloading a 7 ton, 40 kWe fission surface power reactor is presented as a design example illustrating the utility of the structural sizing approach.