Mass measuring instrument for use under microgravity conditions

• Published in: Review of scientific instruments Vol. 79; no. 5; pp. 056105 - 056105-3
• Main Authors: Fujii, Yusaku, Shimada, Kazuhito, Yokota, Masayuki, Hashimoto, Seiji, Sugita, Yoichi, Ito, Hitomi
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States American Institute of Physics 01.05.2008
• Subjects: AIRCRAFT; ASTRONAUTS; Body Weight; Body Weights and Measures - instrumentation; Body Weights and Measures - methods; CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSICS; Humans; INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY; INTERFEROMETERS; MASS; RUBBERS; SENSORS; SPACE; Space Flight - instrumentation; TRANSDUCERS; VELOCITY; VISIBLE RADIATION; WEIGHTLESSNESS
• ISSN: 0034-6748; 1089-7623
• DOI: 10.1063/1.2927193

A prototype instrument for measuring astronaut body mass under microgravity conditions has been developed and its performance was evaluated by parabolic flight tests. The instrument, which is the space scale, is applied as follows. Connect the subject astronaut to the space scale with a rubber cord. Use a force transducer to measure the force acting on the subject and an optical interferometer to measure the velocity of the subject. The subject’s mass is calculated as the impulse divided by the velocity change, i.e., M = ∫ F d t ∕ δ v . Parabolic flight by using a jet aircraft produces a zero-gravity condition lasting approximately 20 s . The performance of the prototype space scale was evaluated during such a flight by measuring the mass of a sample object.