ISS Quasi-steady Accelerometric Data as a Tool for the Detection of External Disturbances During the Period 2009-2016

Abstract

The present work aims to investigate the degree of correlation existing between the information contained in the ISS reduced quasi-steady accelerometric data and different external mechanical disturbances (reboostings, dockings/undockings, berthings/deberthings and Extra Vehicular Activities), compiled for the period 2009 to 2016. The eight hour mean (Mean8h) and the eight hour root mean square (RMS8h) acceleration values, considered as reduced data, have been extracted from the quasi-steady records provided by NASA Principal Investigator Microgravity Services website. The advantage of applying the present strategy is to drastically reduce the amount of information to be processed all along these eight years. The Mean8h values have been used for the evaluation of trends as function of time while the RMS8h ones were used to define the level (weak, medium and strong) of the different kind of external mechanical disturbances considered. These criteria has been applied for approximately four hundred selected disturbances, compiled in the Appendix. Results indicate that reboosting is always detected as a strong disturbance, while dockings/undockings, as weak ones, having lower, though detectable level, depending on the type of spacecraft considered. Extra Vehicular Activities are undetectable by the use of this reduced quasi-steady approach. The inverse problem, in other words, knowing the value of the RMS8h one could try to predict the kind of disturbance responsible of it, is thus feasible except for berthing/deberthings and Extra Vehicular Activities.