Vibration Isolation, Suppression and Steering (VISS)

The opportunities for precision space instruments will increase if they can be accommodated on a non-precise spacecraft or platform. In order to meet the precision requirements of various space instruments, the objective was to develop a six degree of freedom Vibration Isolation, Suppression and Steering (VISS) subsystem that interfaces the instrument to the spacecraft or platform. This paper results from a study to design a flight experiment to validate the VISS subsystem for a Mid-Wave Infra Red (MWIR) Camera on top of a small spacecraft. One of the major challenges is to develop a long stroke PZT actuator that is redundant and compact, with low stiffness and power efficiency. The test performance of the actuator design and the predicted VISS performance of the design is included.