title: Microgravity Level Measurement of the Beijing Drop Tower Using a Sensitive Accelerometer.
abstract: Drop tower is the most common ground-based facility to provide microgravity environment and widely used in many science experiments. A differential space accelerometer has been proposed to test the spin-gravity interaction between rotating extended bodies onboard a drag-free satellite. In order to assist design and test of this inertial sensor in a series of ground- based pre-flight experiments, it is very important to know accurately the residual acceleration of drop towers. In this report, a sensitive instrument for this purpose was built with a high-performance servo quartz accelerometer, and the dedicated interface electronics design providing small full-scale range and high sensitivity, up to 136.8 V/g0. The residual acceleration at the Beijing drop tower was measured using two different drop capsules. The experimental result shows that the microgravity level of the free-falling double capsule is better than 2 × 10(-4)g0 (Earth's gravity). The measured data in this report provides critical microgravity information for design of the following ground experiments.
authors.affiliation: Department of Precision Instrument, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China.
authors.forename: T Y
authors.initials: TY
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Department of Precision Instrument, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China.
authors.forename: Q P
authors.initials: QP
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.affiliation: Department of Precision Instrument, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China.
authors.forename: B Q
authors.initials: BQ
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.affiliation: Department of Precision Instrument, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China.
authors.forename: F T
authors.initials: FT
authors.lastname: Han