Europe's Flattest Floor
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'Europe’s Flattest Floor'

In July of 2022, I was contacted about installing one of my Precision Air Bearing Floor Systems in the UK at the new ZERO-G Astrolab Robotics Laboratory at the University of Liverpool. I would be working on the REMORA Project, info at this link - https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=MR%2FW009498%2F1 - with Dr. Stefania Soldini and her team. She had referenced the European Space Agency’s European Space Technology and Research Centre in the Netherlands as an example of what she was looking for, this testing facility is billed as ‘Europe’s Flattest Floor’, info at this link - 
https://www.esa.int/Enabling_Support/Space_Engineering_Technology/Zero-G_Europe_s_flattest_floor

After reviewing the specifications on that floor, I assured Dr. Soldini that her new Laboratory would be the next level in comparison. The next 3 years was spent consulting with Dr. Soldini and her team, advising the general contractor on specifications for the renovation of the basement Laboratory in the 200-year-old George Holt Building on campus and the ever-exhausting time spent with the administrative process of contracting a project of this importance. Finally in mid-August of 2025 we were on site setting up to start this installation that lasted until mid-September, info at this link -
https://www.liverpool.ac.uk/research/space/space-robotics

University of Liverpool Zero G AstroLab

After installation was completed, the metrology crew from Manchester Metrology was brought in to conduct laser tracker testing and measurements on our floor and the results revealed that the University of Liverpool ZERO-G Astrolab now has the ‘Europe’s Flattest Floor’ by a big margin.

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The size of the ESA’s ESTEC floor is 4.8 m x 9 m (15.75 ft x 29.5 ft or 465 square feet).
The size of our Precision Air Bearing Floor System in the University of Liverpool’s ZERO-G Astrolab is 2.4 m x 5.2 m (8 ft x 17 ft or 136 square feet). For the skeptic individuals who assume that the smaller size (3.4 times smaller) may contribute to the overwhelming accuracy differences, rest assured there is no truth to this correlation. Our Precision Air Bearing Floor Systems are far superior to any other alternative regardless of the size. One example is our 1100 square foot installation at Northorp Grumman for the University of Southern California in December of 2008 (over 2.3 times the size of the ESA’s ESTEC floor). The USC Project has similar accuracy numbers to that of the ZERO-G Astrolab.

University of Southern California - Air Bearing Floor

See the ZERO-G Astrolab in operation on YouTube here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n6PqhiFiS7U

Click Image to see Zero G Lab Video

Special thanks to all the fine people at the University of Liverpool involved with this project. Their help with getting me moved in and set-up to do the installation was instrumental to our success.

JCE Resins

My appreciation and respect go to Justin Jamieson, owner of JCE Custom Epoxy Resins, https://jcecustomepoxyresins.co.uk, Justin assisted me on this project and is our UK representative.

Zero G AstroLab University of Liverpool

Download a PDF version of this article here - Europe's Flattest Floor