Research of a Prototype of a Stand for the Verification of a Spherical Optical Retroreflector

Present study considers the problem of measuring the deviation of the position of the center of mass of a spherical geodesic microsatellite relative to its geometric center. In accordance with the technical specification for the microsatellite’s manufacturing process, said deviation should be controlled with an accuracy of at least 100 micrometers. The paper proposes a method for measuring the displacement of the center of mass of a spherical object satisfying this requirement, and provides a diagram of a measuring rig implementing this method. A prototype of this measurement rig was built and tested.