HIGH PRECISION SPECTROMETER MOVEMENT

MANY SPACECRAFT OPTICAL/MECHANICAL APPLICATIONS SUCH AS SPECTROMETERS REQUIRE HIGH LEVELS OF POSITIONING PRECISION, UNOBTAINABLE WITH CONVENTIONAL APPROACHES, COUPLED WITH EXTREMELY HIGH RELIABILITY. SATCON TECHNOLOGY CORPORATION PROPOSES TO DEVELOP AND DEMONSTRATE A HIGH PRECISION MOVEMENT FOR SPACECRAFT SPECTROMETERS AND OTHER OPTICAL APPLICATIONS WHICH WILL SATISFY BOTH THESE REQUIREMENTS. THE PROPOSED DEVICE USES A TWO STAGE MECHANIZATION COMBININGA NOVEL LOCKING, ELECTRO-MECHANICAL COARSE STAGE WITH A PIEZO-ELECTRIC FINE POINTING STAGE. THE MOVEMENT HAS COMPLETE ROTATIONAL FREEDOM ABOUT YAW AND ALLOWS +/-5 DEGREES OF MOTION ABOUT PITCH AND/OR ROLL. OPTICAL COMPONENTS CAN BE ALIGNED QUICKLY TO ANY ORIENTATION WITHIN THE ALLOWED RANGE OF ANGULAR MOTION WITH A PRECISION GREATERTHAN .0007 ARC-SECONDS IN ROLL, PITCH, AND YAW AND HELD IN THAT POSITION IDEFINITELY WITH NEGLIGIBLE POWER CONSUMPTION. THE COARSE STAGE COMBINES A NOVEL ANGULAR CONTACT BALL BEARING WITH SPHERICAL SYMMETRY, WITH A SPHERICAL TOQUE MOTOR, WITH A PIEZO-ELECTRIC LOCKING MECHANISM. THE FINE STAGE IS BASED ON AN EXTREMELY SIMPLE SIX-DEGREE-OF-FREEDOM PIEZO-ELECTRIC ACTUATION SYSTEM. PHASE I WILL DEMONSTRATE FEASIBILITY AND WILL INCLUDE DESIGNDEFINITION OF THE DEVICE. A PROTOTYPE SYSTEM WILL BE CONSTRUCTED, TESTED, AND EVALUATED AS A FOLLOW-ON PHASE II PROGRAM.