Owens, A. R. | Search NASA

NASA NTRS1992

The Microgravity Isolation Mount (MGIM): A Columbus facility for improving the microgravity quality of payloads

The Microgravity Isolation Mount (MGIM) is a facility for providing active vibration isolation for sensitive experiments on the Columbus Attached Laboratory and the Columbus Free-Flying Laboratory. The facility is designed to be accommodated in a standard Columbus rack, and it iterfaces with existing rack utility services. The design is based on a non-contact strategy, whereby the payload 'floats' inside the rack, and its position is controlled by a number of magnetic actuators. The main advantage of using this non-contact strategy is the improved microgravity quality available. The overall design of the facility and a description of its elements are given.

Owen, R. G.↗

NASA NTRS1987

A microgravity isolation mount

The design and preliminary testing of a system for isolating microgravity sensitive payloads from spacecraft vibrational and impulsive disturbances is discussed. The Microgravity Isolation Mount (MGIM) concept consists of a platform which floats almost freely within a limited volume inside the spacecraft, but which is constrained to follow the spacecraft in the long term by means of very weak springs. The springs are realized magnetically and form part of a six degree of freedom active magnetic suspension system. The latter operates without any physical contact between the spacecraft and the platform itself. Power and data transfer is also performed by contactless means. Specifications are given for the expected level of input disturbances and the tolerable level of platform acceleration. The structural configuration of the mount is discussed and the design of the principal elements, i.e., actuators, sensors, control loops and power/data transfer devices are described. Finally, the construction of a hardware model that is being used to verify the predicted performance of the MGIM is described.

Jones, D. I.↗