Time-Domain Electromagnetic Characterization of Reaction Wheel for Space Applications

Abstract

The electromagnetic characterization of reaction wheels is crucial to comply with the demanding ac magnetic field cleanliness requirements of space science missions, thus, preventing interference on sensitive onboard instrumentation. Therefore, a complete assessment, including the measurement of the magnetic flux vector at different operational modes and under dynamic conditions, is proposed as a contribution beyond conventional testing methodologies. This article investigates the worst-case magnetic field emissions experimentally, using a test setup based on a multichannel acquisition and multidomain postprocessing system. The focus of the measurement campaign was on the low-frequency range (10 Hz-2 kHz). Moreover, capturing the B-field in the timedomain enabled further analysis, that is, complementary outputs for understanding the electromagnetic performance of the reaction wheel. As a result, we can relate the wheel rotation with the current and the magnetic fields, compute the field orientation, and evaluate in-band interference for the magnetic field.

Overview on Permanent Magnet Motor Trends and Developments

“…Nevertheless, high frequency effects exist on the direct current part concerning the battery management system and the link with the inverter that is why various techniques for their mitigation and attenuation have been proposed, such as appropriate filter topologies [94], combined with switching techniques [95,96], as well as multi-winding machine configurations [97]. It may be noted that a detailed analysis of EMC and EMI effects is critical in particular applications involving very restrictive requirements such as in aerospace engineering [98,99].…”

Measuring Receiver Benchmark for Conducted and Radiated Emissions Testing in Space Applications

“…More importantly, the EMC plan can vary from mission to mission. For instance, previous works exploited the multichannel capabilities of full time-domain EMI measurement systems in the characterization of magnetic field emissions of a reaction wheel [19] or benefited from the extremely fast response of real-time analysers to increase the probability of interception of short events occurring during nanosatellites emissions testing [20].…”