Combined Centre of Gravity and Moment of Inertia
Measurement unit W50/M6
General Description
WM50/6 is the combined facility consisting of the W50 Centre of Gravity machine and the M6 Moment of Inertia machine, mounted on top of the W50.
This facility is equipped with a Rotary Table (RT), thus it allows the measurement of the CoG in the horizontal plane. In addition, the measurement of the MoI around the vertical axis of the test object can be done in the same test configuration.
The tests validate the prediction of the physical properties of the test object, which is of great importance for the attitude control of the spacecraft.
The unbalance is induced by the position of the CoG of the object with respect to the tilting axis of the table.
The principle of the M6 machine is based on the measurement of the rotational oscillation period of the test object about the oscillation axis.
Three L-shape adapter devices are available for measurements with the test object axis in horizontal position.
