Analysis and Control of Microvibrations on ARTEMIS Satellite

The need for a very high pointing accuracy and an extremely quiet on-board environment (micro-dynamic) has become an increasingly important issue in the most advanced space missions, such as the ARTEMIS telecommunication satellite. In the first part, this paper presents the activities carried out by Alenia Spazio (ALS) to analyze the effects of microvibrations on the satellite. In the second part, a feasibility study based on a smart structure is proposed to suppress the structural microvibrations. A numerical simulation of an intelligent structure based on piezo sensors and actuators connected in a closed-loop architecture with PD feedback is performed; the effects of feedback gain, sensor/actuators location and thicknesses are investigated to show the capability to reduce the dynamic environment transmitted to the satellite.