Magnetic bearings for instruments in the space environment

A magnetic bearing development is documented, which has been successfully applied to support a 0.9 kg - 19 cm diameter rotor in 5 degrees of freedom, with fully controlled drive capability to plus or minus 200 rad/s in the other axis. The construction details are described and illustrated. Performance data on five design variations are presented which extend the load capacity to 8 kilograms at which point the bearing element on the rotor is less than one-half of 1 percent of the total load capacity.