DUAL STAGE ISOLATION – A PASSIVE BI-LINEAR APPLICATION FOR LAUNCH LOAD ATTENUATION AND ON-ORBIT JITTER MITIGATION

Traditional methods of on-orbit mechanical jitter mitigation have inherent performance limitations when subjected to spaceflight requirements. Historically, vibration isolation systems have been massive, complex, high-risk systems that provide excellent performance, but only over a limited frequency band. Through the lens of the dual-stage cryocooler vibration isolation system developed for the Astro-H (Hitomi) spacecraft, this paper addresses key challenges associated with vibration isolation and the evolutionary methods for attaining optimal performance in both launch and on-orbit regimes. This paper details functionality of the system’s key technologies and reports on advancements over traditional technologies.