A novel vibration isolation system for reaction wheel on space telescopes

• A novel vibration isolation system is proposed.
• The characteristics of the tuned mass damper are presented.
• The characteristics of the negative stiffness structure are discussed.
• The dynamic model of a spacecraft with vibration isolation system is constructed.
• Frequency domain characteristics of the vibration isolation system are described.

A reaction wheel (RW) is commonly used as an actuator for attitude control on space telescopes. The RW can also produce tonal disturbances and broadband noises when the wheel spins. In this work, a novel vibration isolation system is proposed to attenuate the disturbances caused by the RW. This novel vibration isolation system includes a multi-strut vibration isolation platform and multiple tuned-mass dampers, and each strut of the vibration isolation platform includes a negative stiffness structure in parallel with a positive stiffness structure. This study aims to validate the feasibility and effectiveness of this new vibration isolation system from a theoretical perspective. First, the integrated satellite dynamic model is constructed, including the RWs and the vibration isolation systems. Next, its frequency domain characteristics are described, and the application of the vibration isolation system for RWs is presented. Finally, the effective attenuation of RW disturbances is illustrated via the new vibration isolation system, and its safety performance is verified with numerical simulations.