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Gravity Probe B

Testing Einstein's Universe

WEEKLY HIGHLIGHTS FOR WEEK ENDING 28 JANUARY 2000:

STANFORD HIGHLIGHT
The gyroscope test team has successfully completed room temperature test of the 4 gyroscopes installed in Probe C. The gyroscopes performed flawlessly in all tests as listed below:

  1. Gyro levitation
  2. Rotor spin down rate with the rotor in the center location
  3. Rotor spin down rate with the rotor in the spin up location
  4. Rotor cavity exploration
  5. Caging touch test
  6. UV system checkout
This excellent room temperature result shows that the integration and test of the payload has left the gyroscopes clean. This result also shows that the anomalous spin down rates seen in Payload Test I were due to cryo-contamination. This gyroscope contamination source will be eliminated prior to Payload Test II. The team members involved in this work include R. Brumley, B. Clarke, C. Gray, D. Hipkins, and R. Leese.

Photo: The flight probe removed from its dewar in the class 10 clean room during room temperature testing

SPACE VEHICLE HIGHLIGHT
The Solar Array Deployment Mechanism (SADM) protoqualification unit has begun testing in B/255.

Photo: LMMS Engineer Shawn Shelton with the SADM protoqual unit.

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