MIR Microgravity Environment “Microaccéléromètre” Experiment

The aim of the “Microaccéléromètre” experiment is to perform a microgravity characterization of the Russian MIR space station environment. This experiment has been used in 1992 and 1993 flights to characterize the disturbing sources in the different modules of the station during different activity periods. The sensor head is a three axis piezoelectric accelerometer working in a bandwidth from 0.1 Hz to 400 Hz. A special post-processing software has been developed by CNES to analyse the different signal classes (continuous or transient phenomena). This analysis has provided a lot of knowledges about the MIR microgravity environment. Both time and frequency signatures of significant events recorded in the MIR station have been successfully identified with this experiment.