Synthesis of flight results of the Cactus accelerometer for accelerations below 10−9g

The Cactus accelerometer, developed at ONERA and making up the payload of the Castor satellite, has been operating continuously and normally for 40 months. Thanks to the great quantity of data acquired and to a well adapted processing technique, acceleration measurements were in fact obtained with a better sensitivity than that expected before launch.This paper presents a synthesis of the work carried out in the past year and concerning the measurement of very low accelerations. These are due, for the most part, to the Earth IR radiation pressure when the satellite is in the Earth's shadow, and to the thrust it is subjected to under the influence of the anisotropy of its own radiation.