Space satellite design generally involves multidisciplinary collaboration process. This paper discusses a practical application ofa systematic design optimization approach to the design of a small satellite called "Micro-LabSat" The satellite design problem hastwo sub design problems, a component arrangement problem and a structural design problem, and the features of these twoproblems are entirely different since the component arrangement problem involves discrete design variables such as the positions ofthe components, while the structural design problem has continuous design variables such as the dimensions of the parts. Therefore,a bi-level optimization procedure is applied First, two sublevel optimization problems for the sub design problems are solved Then,the satellite-level optimization problem that considers all factors is solved using the sublevel optimal solutions as initial points foroptimization. The bi-level optimization scheme presented here provides an efficient search procedure, and offers optimal solutions inshort calculation times.
