02-10-2021, 06:38 AM
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Aggressor Aerospace
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Join Date: Oct 2012
Location: Colorado Springs, CO
Posts: 592
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by olDave
The main reason that many manufacturers (aircraft as well as missiles) use a theoretical station 0 that is located well out in front of the vehicle itself is to allow for future versions.
If you put the origin of your coordinate system exactly on the point of the nose, then any time you have a revision of the nose shape, or a growth/stretch version, or any other significant change, you would have to go through the entire drawing system and generate a new set of location dimensions for all parts, as well as re-numbering the mass properties database, and a lot of other paperwork revisions.
Almost all vehicle config changes will still be using almost all of the previous vehicle parts, so why make yourself have to do a bunch of extra work?
Placing station 0 out in front of the nose by two inches or two miles does not matter, as long as you know the definition of your coordinate axes.
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Quite possibly true for aircraft, but definitely not true for the Atlas and Delta launch systems. As stated before, the intent for these SLVs was to ensure alignment of flight and ground segments. Hard to tank a vehicle when the swing arm misses the fill/drain coupler by 10-15 feet!
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