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On-ground investigation of space accelerometers noise with an electrostatic torsion pendulum

2000; American Institute of Physics; Volume: 71; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1063/1.1150197

1527-2400

Eric Willemenot, Pierre Touboul,

Mechanical and Optical Resonators

A torsion pendulum has been used to measure very weak forces that limit the resolution of highly sensitive space accelerometers. A new method is described to measure damping with a feedback loop. The main results are (i) an upper limit to time evolution of contact potential differences inside electrostatic space accelerometers, (ii) the stiffness and damping from a very thin conducting wire, and (iii) an additional damping from unknown source. Consequences for space accelerometers design are derived.