Dynamical microaccelerometric measurements on board space shuttle

The performances of the microaccelerometer MACEK have been checked on board of Space Shuttle STS-79 (September 1996). The results show many big as well as tiny accelerations caused by the internal Space Shuttle motions and even by the external forces of natural origin. The data were collected every 2 s for the time interval of 8 days and 8 h. The thermal dependence of the data is clearly detected and after its removal the measurements during the crew “sleeping” periods has been analysed in detail. Despite the very noisy spacecraft environment the drag effects can correspond to the theoretically predicted values. Further development of the accelerometric measurements is aimed to the realization of the project “MIMOSA” which is being prepared for launch at the beginning of 2000. This project consists of a small satellite boarding the accelerometer as the only instrument. The scientific tasks to be solved by the data comprise the atmospheric density distribution and variation, the terrestrial albedo distribution as well as the infrared radiation distribution. The version of the “MACEK” accelerometer now in preparation is sensitive to 10 −10 ms −2.