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Objectives
In the frame of the contract 4000110670/14/NL/US a 100 Volt High torque Wheel Drive Electronic with analogue interface for a Reaction Wheel was qualified. The design and qualification file was submitted for approval.
In the frame of this qualification, which was performed on Reaction Wheel Assembly level, several features of the heritage wheel drive electronics were improved and qualified. For example, on parts level the European N-channel MOSFETs have been validated and qualified in the Reaction Wheel Assembly. A new ESA-qualified PCB-supplier has been selected and qualified in the Reaction Wheel Assembly. The most stringent mechanical environmental conditions for the Reaction Wheel Assembly have been successfully qualified in the frame of this contract.
The qualification of the Reaction Wheel Assembly RSI 50-220/451 was successful and is now the baseline for the 100 Volt Off-The-Shelf Reaction Wheel Product Line at Rockwell Collins Deutschland GmbH.
Challenges
During preparation and performance of the Shock Test it was recognized that the specified shock levels were very challenging to be met by the test house. For future Shock Test campaigns, RCD will consider a test set-up and/or test house change in order to avoid not meeting the specification.
Driven by the design of the reaction wheel some tests were sensitive to the non-preferred “structure return” test set-up and few NCR’s were raised. As lessons learnt, RCD has drastically improved the test set-up descriptions to avoid re-test campaigns in the future.
Current Status
A qualification test has been performed with a reaction wheel assembly of the type RSI 50-220/451 including functional tests at room temperature and at temperature extremes as well as sine and random vibration tests, a shock test, an EMC test and a microvibration test.
With this successful qualification campaign of the RSI 50-220/451 RCD has established a Reaction Wheel Assembly with a 100 Volt high torque WDE analogue interface as an off-the-shelf product which benefits all satellite manufacturer’s using a 100 Volt bus supply.
