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Preliminary Investigations of an Optical Assembly Tracking Mechanism for LISAAfter injection into their specific orbits, the position of the LISA spacecraft are not actively controlled. Rather the spacecraft are allowed to passively follow their trajectories and the roughly equilateral triangular constellation is preserved. Slight variations in the orbits cause the constellation to experience both periodic and secular variations, one consequence of which is a variation in the interior angles of the constellation on the order of one degree. This variation is larger than the field of view of the LISA telescope, requiring a mechanism for each spacecraft to maintain pointing to its two companions. This Optical Assembly Tracking Mechanism (OATM) will be used to accommodate these variations while maintaining pointing at the ten nanoradian level to the far spacecraft. Here we report on a possible design for the OATM as well as initial results from a test campaign of a piezo-inchworm actuator used to drive the mechanism.
Document ID
20100015507
Acquisition Source
Goddard Space Flight Center
Document Type
Conference Paper
Authors
Thorpe, James Ira
(NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, MD, United States)
Stebbins, Robin
(NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, MD, United States)
Date Acquired
August 24, 2013
Publication Date
January 1, 2010
Subject Category
Space Communications, Spacecraft Communications, Command And Tracking
Meeting Information
Meeting: 38th Committee on Space Research (COSPAR) Assembly
Location: Bremen
Country: Germany
Start Date: July 18, 2010
End Date: July 25, 2010
Sponsors: Committee on Space Research
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Work of the US Gov. Public Use Permitted.

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