Tribological characteristics of solid lubricated bearings used in ADEOS-II TCM

Japanese satellite, Advanced Earth Observing Satellite-II (ADEOS-II, to be launched in 2002) has a flexible solar cell array paddle, made up of an extension mast and 50 flexible blankets with 55680 solar cells. To keep the tension applied to the blankets at a suitable level, a tension control mechanism (TCM) is mounted at the tip of the paddle. With the purpose of proving the performance and the lifetime of ball bearings used in TCM, three kinds of oscillatory motion tests were performed. The test results demonstrated sufficient performance and lifetime of the bearings. The other result also indicated that very smooth oscillatory motion could be achieved by appropriate running-in of the bearings.