The design and testing of a structural system were implemented to hold the optics of the planned Space Interferometry Mission (SIM) at positions and orientations characterized by vibrational translation and rotation errors of no more than a few nanometers or a few milliarcseconds, respectively. Much of the effort was devoted to a test bed for verifying the predicted behavior of a vibration-isolation structural subsystem working together with an active control system for positioning and orienting the SIM optics.

There was considerable emphasis on the vibration-isolation subsystem, which was passive and comprised two stages. The main sources of vibration were six reaction wheels in an assembly denoted the "backpack." The first vibration-isolation stage consisted of hexapod isolator mounts — one for each reaction wheel — characterized by a natural vibration frequency of 10 Hz. The second stage was a set of three beams, disposed between the backpack and the structure that held the SIM optics, that were flexured such that they transmitted only bending loads, with a natural vibrational frequency and damping of about 5 Hz and 4 percent, respectively. Preliminary test results were presented and characterized as demonstrating the effectiveness of the two-stage vibration-isolation design.

This work was done by Renaud Goullioud, Yekta Gursel, Timothy Neville, Allen J. Bronowicki, David Platus, and Rhonda MacDonald of Caltech for NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. For more information, contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

NPO-30734