Simulative validation of a novel experiment carrier for the Einstein-Elevator

Abstract

In order to develop hardware that can be used in space, tests under those space conditions are often important to ensure the functionality in advance. Facilities that are used to recreate gravity conditions of space include space stations, satellites, parabolic flights and earthbound facilities. Drop towers are earthbound facilities, that can replicate the gravitational conditions of free falling in space by dropping objects. Those objects would not experience any measurable force due to gravity according to Einstein’s famous thought experiment. The Einstein-Elevator is one of the first active driven drop towers with an experiment carrier falling inside a gondola. A major indicator for the quality of the facility is the residual acceleration of the payload. With the Einstein-Elevators current setup vibrations of the experiment carrier cause measurable residual accelerations of higher than 10 - 3 g. To achieve the targeted 0-g-quality with a residual acceleration of less than 1 μ g (microgravity) in the Einstein-Elevator, a new experiment carrier is required that minimizes the residual acceleration for a payload. This paper describes a design of the experiment carrier for the Einstein-Elevator that is able to reach microgravity and analyzes its functionality using FEM-simulations.