Design of a compliant passive magnetic bearing for use in SIRTF's Tertiary Mirror Assembly
1990
A proposed baseline design for the Space Infrared Telescope Facility includes a Tertiary Mirror Assembly (TMA)
which selectively redirects the telescope's converging science beam to each of several instruments. The TMA's mirror
rotates on an axis coincident with the beam's axis,'and is held steady during observation by a kinematic mount. A
bearing has been designed whose compliance causes minimal interference with the precision of the kinematic mount, and
which is well suited to the particular requirements of a cryogenic sateffite such as SIRTF. The bearing suspends its rotor
by taking advantage of the repulsion between a superconductor and a magnet. It potentially eliminates problems
associated with mechanical bearings that arise in similar applications, such as lubricant loss or failure, bearing wear, and
sensitivity to particulates, and does so without imposing the thermal load of a bearing heater or active magnetic bearing.
The bearing shows promise of offering an alternative to ball bearings in cryogenic applications where some compliance
is acceptable or advantageous.
Keywords:
- Correction
- Source
- Cite
- Save
- Machine Reading By IdeaReader
0
References
1
Citations
NaN
KQI