Attitude Oscillation Damping for Space Station Freedom Alternative Assembly Configurations

Studies were conducted to investigate passive magnetic dampers as alternative stabilization methods for the United States Space Station Freedom. Achievement of a fully functioning vehicle with communication, control, and reboost capability after the first flight is constrained by the space shuttle size and lift capabilities. Magnetic dampers have been built by General Electric since the 1960´s and have been used with several gravity-gradient stable spacecraft Magnetic dampers require no power or communication ability to operate. When used on properly manifested spacecraft, magnetic dampers provide a lightweight, inexpensive, proven effective method of passively damping attitude oscillations. This paper contains some of the results of a study conducted by Lockheed Engineering and Sciences Company for NASA-JSC to determine the possibility of using magnetic dampers on alternative assembly configurations for Freedom. The work was performed under contract number NAS 9-17900.