<title>Isolation systems for electronic black-box transportation to orbit</title>

Abstract

Servicing the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) requires the safe transportation of electronic Orbital Replacenient Units (ORUs) on the Space Transportation System (STS) to replace or enhance the capability of existing units. The delicate design (f these electronic ORUs makes it imperative to provide isolation from the STS launch random vibration, while maintaining fundamental modes above the transient load environment. Two methods were developed and used exclusively, on Servicing Mission 2 (SM2), to isolate the ORUs from the environmental launch loads imposed by the STS. The first load isolation system utilizes a refined open/closed cell foam design to provide the required damping and corner frequency, while the second method uses an innovative Viscoelastic Material (VEM) design.This paper addresses both systems as initially designed including finite element (FE) model analysis of the VFM system. Vibration testing of prototype systems and modifications to the design resulting from test will he discussed. i'he final design as flown on HST SM2 with recommendations for future applications of these technologies in transporting electronic black boxes to orbit will conclude the paper.

<title>Survey of state-of-the-art vibration isolation research and technology for space applications</title>

“…It has been used for Hubble Space Telescope servicing missions in the space shuttle, achieving attenuation above 8 Hz for the solar array resupply mission 42 and has achieved attenuation above 30 Hz on a mission to replace various modules. 43 The passive interface between the space shuttle and the payloads has been analyzed and methods to decrease transmissibility to the payload have been suggested. 44 More recently, for small launch vehicles, two types of passive launch protection devices are being pursued: 1) whole spacecraft isolation 45 and 2) shock isolation.…”