Identification of the zero-g shape of a space beam

This paper develops an approach for identifying the 0-g shape of a beam/column In a 1-g enviroment. The determination of the 0-g shape is accomplished by a combination of experiment and analysis. A prototype large space structure beam/column is scaled to laboratory size to demonstrate that the 0-g shape of the structure can be accurately detcrniined in a ground based experiment. Information obtained from the 0-g shape experiment is also used to experimerltally measure the stiffness of the beam model.