Actuators for Space Applications: State of the Art and New Technologies

Actuators in space are broadly used to operate satellites’ platform and payload devices. Despite their common utilisation, actuators still represent critical subsystems as their failure might often lead to severe, when not catastrophic, effects on the spacecraft operations. Environmental conditions to which actuators are exposed in space are generally not favourable: operating temperature ranges and deep vacuum are certainly the most critical ones. On the other end, performance requirements are instead becoming more and more challenging. In this context, consolidated technologies, like electric motors, are undergoing further design optimisations and progressing in terms of performances and reliability. Furthermore, new material and smart devices are progressively considered to best fulfil the wide range of applications and requirements of future spacecraft. The paper is intended to provide an overview of the state of the art of actuators technologies currently used in space and to highlight new trends and challenges that are characterising next generation of actuators.