Non-contact vibration isolation technology demonstration on a CubeSat

In the next decade, NASA envisions a large space-based telescope that will perform unprecedented astronomy focused on the detection and characterization of Earth-like exoplanets. Recent advances in optical coronography enable this mission, but the technology imposes challenging requirements on telescope dynamic stability and vibration isolation. An integrated non-contact pointing and vibration isolation system called the Disturbance Free Payload (DFP) provides a means to achieve this stability. This system provides an ideal non-contact state (with only residual coupling from power and data cables and actuator effects) while allowing for the necessary degree of rigid-body payload control to meet required telescope pointing and system line-of-sight (LOS) agility. A subscale demonstration of the DFP technology on a CubeSat operating in 6 degrees of freedom in the space environment is one of several developments needed to advance the DFP architecture to TRL 6. This paper describes the mission goals and the preliminary payload and experiment design.