Space Station development test objectives for on-orbit microgravity characterization

Abstract

The ISS Microgravity Integrated Performance Team has initiated a program of on-orbit testing and analysis to characterize the ISS quasi-steady and vibratory microgravity environment. A comparison of on-orbit quasi-steady data to model results from the Space Station Multi-Rigid Body simulator shows the model to be 30% conservative if baseline model inputs are used. This value improves to approximately 4% with realtime inputs, indicating that the model is a good approximation. Data for the peak magnitude of the quasi-steady vector show good agreement between the measured and model results if the measured data are filtered to remove one-time peaks and other highfrequency content. For characterization of the vibratory environment, a Station Development Test Objective has been initiated to characterize microgravity environment disturbers from crew exercise equipment and other disturbers.