The 24-foot Diameter Centrifuge is designed to create hypergravitational conditions for small animal and plant research. The centrifuge has 10 radial arms and holds up to a total of 20 large, opaque, ventilated enclosures for holding animals and equipment. These enclosures can be located at different radii to produce gravitational forces of up to four times Earth gravity on the floor of the enclosure. Three additional, smaller enclosures are available near the axis of rotation of the centrifuge and eight stationary enclosures are available within the centrifuge rotunda to provide appropriate non-hypergravity controls. Onboard water and food dispensing systems permit continuous studies.
Slip rings provide in-cage TV monitoring and instrumentation capability.
The 24-foot diameter centrifuge can accommodate rodents, guinea pigs, rabbits, primates, and plants. The 8-foot centrifuge was primarily designed for rodent studies, but can be modified to accommodate other specimens such as small primates. The centrifuge has 10 radial arms, each capable of holding one animal enclosure. The rodent enclosure, similar to that on the 24-foot centrifuge, can accommodate up to two vivarium cages. In addition, special enclosures have been developed to allow centrifugation studies with snakes.