Development of Six Degrees of Freedom Vibration Isolation System for Microgravity Environment

An active vibration isolation system, under development for use in microgravity environment, provides electromagnetic suspension by means of voice coils arranged in pairs to control the translational and rotational movements of the payload, three pairs of which cover the three axes to ensure control of payload movement in all six degrees of freedom.

A series of tests performed on this system in microgravity environment created by parabolic flight proved that external disturbances in frequencies above 0.1 Hz were effectively reduced by applying the system. Also, good agreement was obtained between the measured performance and results of numerical simulation.