We present a simple scanning mirror mechanism for a Fourier transform spectrometer, consisting of a voice coil actuator, a ball-bearing slide, and a single cube corner mirror or retroreflector. The use of a single cube corner reduces significantly the sensitivity of the Fourier transform spectrometer to the tilt of its moving mirror, enabling the simple mechanism. With simple velocity feedback using a linear velocity transducer, we achieve a scan speed stability of 2&percent;–5&percent; (root-mean-square) for scan speeds from 40 to 440 &mgr;m/s for a travel of 2.2 cm, corresponding to a spectral resolution of0.06 cm−1.Fringe amplitude stability is about 5&percent;. This scan mechanism was operated at standard temperature and pressure, but the relatively minute amount of lubricant in the ball-bearing slide may indicate possible operation under vacuum and/or cryogenic conditions. ©1998 American Institute of Physics.