Optical survey of micrometeoroid and space debris impact features on EURECA

Drolshagen, G.; McDonnell, J. A. M.; Stevenson, T.; Deshpande, S.P.; Kay, L.; Tanner, W. G.; Mandeville, J. C.; Carey, William M.; Maag, Carl R.; Griffiths, Andrew D.; Shrine, Nick; Aceti, R.

doi:10.1016/0032-0633(95)00140-9

Cited by 16 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 5 publications

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“…Surveyed surfaces and foils have primarily been those exposed on the Long Duration Exposure Facility (LDEF) [McDonnell et al, 1993] and the solar cells retrieved from the Hubble Space Telescope during two servicing missions and from the retrieved European Retrievable Carrier (EURECA) spacecraft [Drolshagen et al, 1996]. These data sets are limited to particles with diameters greater than approximately 100 nm and masses greater than approximately 10 À15 g.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Perforations and craters may be measured by either active impact detectors on spacecraft or, more commonly, by the analysis of surfaces retrieved from orbit and returned to Earth, where empirical hole and crater growth relationships can be used to infer particle parameters from impact hole and crater sizes [ McDonnell et al , 2001]. Surveyed surfaces and foils have primarily been those exposed on the Long Duration Exposure Facility (LDEF) [ McDonnell et al , 1993] and the solar cells retrieved from the Hubble Space Telescope during two servicing missions and from the retrieved European Retrievable Carrier (EURECA) spacecraft [ Drolshagen et al , 1996]. These data sets are limited to particles with diameters greater than approximately 100 nm and masses greater than approximately 10 −15 g.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Nanometer hypervelocity dust impacts in low Earth orbit

et al. 2007

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[1] A study has been made of 60 nm thick aluminum films which have been exposed to the space environment outside of International Space Station (ISS) between 2002 and 2004. Field emission scanning electron microscopy has been used to provide high-resolution images of impact features less than 100 nm in diameter and of detailed impact morphologies at different spatial scales. Analysis of images reveals the incident directions and diameters of the impacting particles and allows separation of impacts at hypervelocity from those at lower velocities. This allows the separation of different particle populations. We find that most detected particles have been generated locally as the result of secondaries following larger impacts elsewhere on the ISS or as a result of docking maneuvers by the Progress supply module or by other spacecraft. There is also evidence for a population of dust particles incident at hypervelocity and with minimum diameters smaller than 10 nm. This particle flux of the dust particles is consistent with the expected flux of micrometeoroids with mass >10 À18 g at 1 AU and may represent the first measurement of dust particles with such small masses in near-Earth space. Future experiments to measure the flux of nanometer-scale dust particles are proposed, both passive exposure cells for retrieval and also active detectors to provide access to dust/debris populations without the requirement for experiment retrieval.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Nanometer hypervelocity dust impacts in low Earth orbit

et al. 2007

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“…Relatively large debris can be monitored by ground observation, but smaller debris is detected and analyzed on the surface of retrieved parts of spacecraft. Retrieved spacecraft parts have been analyzed in the following missions: LDEF (84-90, NASA/ESA) (Mackay et al, 1993;Miao and Stark, 2001), EURECA (92-93, ESA) (Drolshagen et al, 1996), HST (89-93, NASA/ESA) (Drolshagen et al, 1995;FIG. 2. One Exposure Panel (EP) consists of 20 Exposure Units (EUs).…”

Section: Capture Panelsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Four-Year Operation of Tanpopo: Astrobiology Exposure and Micrometeoroid Capture Experiments on the JEM Exposed Facility of the International Space Station

et al. 2021

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The Tanpopo experiment was the first Japanese astrobiology mission on board the International Space Station. It included exposure experiments of microbes and organic compounds as well as a capture experiment of hypervelocity impacting microparticles. We deployed three Exposure Panels, each consisting of 20 Exposure Units that contained microbes, organic compounds, an alanine UV dosimeter or an ionizing radiation dosimeter. The three Exposure Panels were situated on the zenith face of the Exposed Experiment Handrail Attachment Mechanism (ExHAM) that was pointing in zenith direction toward space, which was attached on a handrail of the Japanese Experiment Module (Kibo) Exposed Facility ( JEM-EF) outside the International Space Station. The three Exposure Panels were one by one retrieved and returned to the ground after approximately 1, 2, and 3 years of exposure to the space environment. Capture Panels, each of which contained one or two blocks of amorphous silica aerogel, were exposed to collect hypervelocity impact microparticles. Possible captured particles may include micrometeoroids, human-made orbital debris, and natural terrestrial particles. Each year, Capture Panels containing from 11 to 12 aerogel blocks were attached to the three faces of the ExHAM (pointing to zenith, ram, and port); they remained in place for about 1 year and were then returned to the laboratory. This process was repeated three times, in total, during 2015-2018. Additional exposure of a Capture Panel facing ram was conducted between 2018 and 2019. Once the aerogel blocks were returned to the laboratory, they were encapsulated in dedicated transparent plastic cases and optically inspected by a specially designed microscopic system. Once located and recorded, hypervelocity impact signatures were excavated one by one and distributed for further detailed analyses. The apparatus, operation, and environmental factors of all the Tanpopo experiments are summarized in this article.

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“…During the last three decades, several surfaces designed to sample the low Earth orbit impact environment have been deployed in space as dedicated experiments, and then returned to Earth to provide a wealth of information on the solid particle populations. Among them were experiments aboard the Long Duration Exposure Facility (Zolensky et al, 1995), the European Retrievable Carrier (EuReCa) (Drolshagen et al, 1996), the Space Flyer Unit (Yano et al, 1997) and the Orbital Debris Collector experiment on Mir (Hö rz et al, 2000). For cost and technical reasons, surfaces have been retrieved for later analysis only from near Earth orbits.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%