Passive Accelerometer System Measurements on MIR

Abstract

The Passive Accelerometer System (PAS) is a simple moving ball accelerometer capable of measuring the small magnitude steady relative acceleration that occurs in a low earth orbit spacecraft due to atmospheric drag and the earth's gravity gradient. The acceleration is measured by recording the average velocity of the spherical ball over a suitable time increment. A modified form of Stokes law is used to convert the average velocity into an acceleration. PAS was used to measure acceleration on the MIR space station and on the first United States Microgravity Laboratory (USML-1). The PAS measurement on MIR revealed remarkably low acceleration levels in the SPEKTR module.