Design of a 1.5 Seconds High Quality Microgravity Drop Tower Facility

Abstract

In collaboration with the Institute of Space Systems at the University of Stuttgart, a new non-vacuum drop tower facility shall be built at the Center for Astrophysics, Space Physics and Engineering Research at Baylor University with design parameters of at least 1.5 seconds drop duration while providing a quality of microgravity of at least 10^-5g. A dual drop capsule design was optimized under an aerodynamic perspective to deliver this quality of microgravity, which has so far only been possible at resource intensive vacuum drop towers.