Sizing and Design Tool for Triangular and Cubic Tall Lunar Tower

Tall towers will enable more continuous collection of solar energy at the lunar polar regions by elevating solar panels above shadowing terrain. The Tall Lunar Tower (TLT) project at NASA Langley Research Center has focused on the design, modeling, fabrication, and testing of both a robotic tower assembly system (RTAS) and TLT engineering development units (EDUs). The Tower Configuration Utility (TCU) was developed as a preliminary tower design tool. The TCU design tool is capable of defining the truss structure of a lunar tower when given a desired tip payload and structural member definition, along with material properties. The first iteration of the TCU provided the truss geometry, including the length, thickness, mass, and volume of the structural members of cubic tower bays based on the governing equations and design objectives. The capability of TCU has been expanded to provide design guidance for towers with triangular tower bays. Utilizing the TCU, both a triangular and cubic version of a Tall Lunar Tower were designed and structural analyses of the different configuration were conducted. The present paper describes the development of the TCU as a sizing and design tool for both triangular and cubic tall lunar towers.