Broadband vibration isolation in a deployable telescopic baffle exploiting post-buckling thrust tube dynamics

Stray light suppression is a primary consideration for high-performance optical instruments, yet the necessary baffle dimensions often conflict with launch volume restrictions. Existing solutions necessitate a trade-off: motorised telescopic mechanisms provide structural rigidity but incur significant mass, complexity and cost penalties. Flexible deployable shrouds, whilst volumetrically efficient, lack the deterministic geometry required for high-precision optical rejection.

Here, a passively deployable, rigid telescopic baffle designed to reconcile these requirements is presented. The architecture employs a nested carbon fibre reinforced plastic (CFRP) segment arrangement, actuated by a wire-driven mechanism and stabilised through built-in geometrical constraints and pre-tension. The conventional vane layout enables broadband optical operation, whilst the structure maintains a compact stowed footprint during launch. The specific topology, deployment kinematics and environmental testing strategy discussed in this paper pertain to the second generation of baffles developed for Vyoma GmbH’s space domain awareness (SDA) microsatellite constellations. They have an integrated design, including an opening protective lid and a supporting CFRP thrust tube that contains the optical instrument.

When subjected to high lateral loads, the thrust tube exhibits favourable attenuation properties, effectively acting as a geometrically nonlinear acceleration limiter for the telescopic structure during launch. Intermittent operation in a post-buckling regime, with purely elastic amplitude-dependent softening, provides the principal attenuation mechanism. Qualification tests demonstrate significant broadband transmission loss, with no signs of structural or functional degradation detected a posteriori. Initial empirical characterisation of this isolation property clearly shows that the current design inherently maintains a substantially lower vibration environment at the baffle interface compared to typical linearly behaving support structures.