EUROPEAN SPACE AGENCY INSTALLS SIX-DEGREE-OF-FREEDOM MICROVIBRATION MACHINE

摘要

The latest addition to the European Space Agency's (ESA's) satellite testing facilities is a six-degree-of-freedom microvibration unit, which is sufficiently sensitive to identify the multi-axis forces induced by a single dropped feather. Developed for the ESA by the UK's National Physical Laboratory, a national centre of excellence for measurement standards, this new machine is capable of characterising extremely small disturbances from satellite subsystems or to assess the performance of precision mechanisms.