Evolution of an actuator family

摘要

VTT Automation got involved in spaceflight engineering in the mid-i 980's and helped in the formation of the Finnish space industry. The first design was a worm gear mechanism that opened an auxiliary solar panel for the ASPERA instrument on board the Soviet Phobos spacecraft. Next came the Solar Wind AN isotropy (SWAN), including a 2-axis scanning mechanism, on board ESA's Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO). Two SWAN sensor units cover a field of view of nearly 4π VTT Automation developed scanning mechanisms for two instruments on board NASA's Cassini spacecraft, namely the ACT actuator for the CAPS instrument and the U turntable for the MIMIILEMMS instrument. The actuator concept was further developed in ESA's MPRA project. A version of ACT actuator is currently being manufactured for NASA's Two Wide Angle Imaging Neutral Atom Spectrometers (TWINS) mission.