Reaction wheels development at Stork Aerospace
- Paper number
IAC-05-C1.P.12
- Author
Mr. Tim Leeuwerink, Stork Aerospace, The Netherlands
- Year
2005
- Abstract
During the late 1980s EADS Astrium Ltd Stevenage (then BAe Space Systems) invested heavily in the development of a range of Reaction and Momentum Wheels to meet the needs of future scientific and communication satellites. These wheels covered a range of momentum capacities from 3 to 60NmS with a maximum reaction torque capability of 0.3Nm. The wheels underwent an extensive qualification test programme to prove launch survivability and operational performance across a range of temperatures. Part of this qualification test programme included placing several units on life test. These units have been running for around a decade and prove the design’s capability to operate successfully at speeds up to 6000 rpm continuously, to be frozen at -35°C for a period of time and then be awoken and operate successfully. In addition several of the wheels have been running in zero crossover mode, slow speed mode and at maximum microvibration levels. The paper will report on the evidence of those operating modes of the wheel performance from the results obtained.These wheels are successfully operating on ESA satellites; SOHO, XMM, Integral and Rosetta and the life test wheels together with the flight wheels have accumulated nearly 2m successful wheel hours (Feb 2004).The original wheel design was sold to STORK SPE of The Netherlands in 2002 as a condition of the formation of Astrium. STORK SPE are currently supplying the Reaction wheels to Aeolus using the same design and processes developed at Stevenage during the development of this range of reaction and momentum wheels. STROK currently have a technology demonstrator wheel on life test to prove that the technology has been accurately transferred from Astrium to STORK SPE.
- Abstract document