DAMPER - DIGITAL ACTIVE MATERIALS-PROCESSING PLATFORM EFFORT

THE DIGITAL ACTIVE MATERIALS-PROCESSING PLATFORM EFFORT BE- ING PROPOSED HERE SEEKS TO DEVELOP AN ACTIVELY STABILIZD PLATFORM UPON WHICH MICRO-G MATERIALS PROCESSING EXPERIMENTSCAN BE PERFORMED IN SPACE. WITH THE SUC- CESSFUL COMPLETION OF THE TWO-STEP PHASE I WORKPLAN APPLIED TECHNOLOGY ASSOCIATES (ATA) HAS CLEARLY AND SUCCINTLY DEFINED THE PROBLEM OF PLATFORM ISOLATION IN SPACE AND HAS COMPLETELY CONCEPTUALIZED THE FORMATION OF THE ACTIVELY STABILIZED PLATFORM SOLUTION. THESE RESULTING ACHIEVEMENTS FROM PHASE I HAVE LAID A SOLID FOUNDATION FROM WHICH TO APPROACH THE PHASE II EFFORT. FOR PHASE II ATA WILL EXTEND ITS CAPABILITIES GAINED FROM PHASE I AND WILL BUILD UPON ITS EXPERIENC WITH STATE-OF-THE ART ACTIVELY STABILIZED PLATFORMS. USING THESE FIRM SUPPORTSATA WILL DEVELOP AND EXECUTE A ONE-DEGREE OF FREEDOM DEMON- STRATION EXPERIMENT TO CONCLUSIVELY VALIDATE THE THEORETICALVIBRATION ISLOLATION CONCEPTS DERIVED FROM PHASE I. FOLLOW-ING THIS SUCCESSFUL DEMONSTRATION ATA WILL ALSO DESIGN FABRICATE AND EXECUTE AN EXPERIMENT USING A THREE-DEGREE OF FREE-DOM VIBRATION ISOLATED PLATFORM EXPERIMENT TO DEMONSTRATE PERFORMANCE ON BOARD NASA'S ZERO-G AIRCRAFT. AS WITH THE PHASE I EFFORT PHASE II CONSISTS OF A WELL-STRUCTURED TOP-DOWN DESIGN APPROACH ENSURING MINIMAL RISK AND H HIGH PROBABILITY OF SUCCESS THUS LEADING TO A SUITABLE LAUNCHING POINT FOR A PHSE III EFFORT