The Dryden Drop Tower is a six-story research facility in the center atrium of Portland State University’s Engineering Building. The tower allows students and researchers to study how fluids, materials, and prototypes behave in short-duration microgravity.
Objects released in the tower experience a fall of approximately 100 feet and about 2.1 seconds of weightlessness, creating a controlled environment for experiments that are difficult or impossible to conduct under normal gravity conditions.
Facility Capabilities
The tower stands approximately 31 meters tall, with a free-fall distance of about 22.2 meters. A drag shield helps reduce the effects of aerodynamic drag during free fall, allowing experiments to achieve microgravity levels of approximately 2×10−4g2 \times 10^{-4} g2×10−4g.
The facility can support up to 80 drops per day. Experiments are operated by push-button control from a single station, with full wireless CCTV coverage. Payloads are safely decelerated using passive magnetic braking.