Contract Detail

THE STUDY OF DUST PARTICLES IN THE UNIVERSE IS RELEVANT TO NUMEROUS FIELDS OF RESEARCH INCLUDING ASTRONOMY PLANETARY AND ATMOSPHERIC SCIENCES. IN PARTICULAR THE LEVITATION OF DUST CLOUDS FOR THE STUDY OF THEIR EVOLUTION OR INTERACTION WITH LIGHT IS CRUCIAL TO THE UNDERSTANDING OF MANY ENVIRONMENTS IN SPACE (PROTOPLANETARY DISKS INTERSTELLAR MEDIUM ETC.). HOWEVER THE CHALLENGES OF LEVITATING DUST CLOUDS IN 1G INCLUDE SIZE SORTING DUE TO GRAVITY AND PREFERENTIAL PARTICLE ORIENTATION DUE TO THE LEVITATING MEDIUM. CLOUD LEVITATION IN MICROGRAVITY IS ALSO LIMITED BY HARDWARE CONSTRAINTS (CELL WALLS) AND RESIDUAL ACCELERATIONS OF THE FLIGHT PLATFORM. THE DUST IN-SITU MANIPULATION SYSTEM (DIMS) TECHNOLOGY BUILDS ON PAST EXPERIMENTS IN ORDER TO OFFER A FLEXIBLE LONG-TERM MICROGRAVITY PLATFORM FOR FUTURE DUST EXPERIMENTS. IN PARTICULAR DIMS WILL ALLOW FOR THE OBSERVATION OF AN UNDISTURBED (NO PHYSICAL CONTACT BETWEEN GRAINS AND TEST CELL WALLS) DUST CLOUD FOR SEVERAL MINUTES (NO CLOUD SHIFTING) WHICH HAS NEVER BEEN DEMONSTRATED YET. THE PHYSICAL CONCEPT AT THE CORE OF THE DIMS TECHNOLOGY IS THERMOPHORESIS: THE RESPONSE OF DUST PARTICLES INSIDE A RAREFIED GAS TO THE FORCE OF A TEMPERATURE GRADIENT. THE OBJECTIVE OF THE TEST FLIGHT WITH BLUE ORIGIN IS THE DEMONSTRATION OF DIMS FUNCTIONALITY AND OPERATION UNDER SEVERAL MINUTES OF MICROGRAVITY. TO THIS END DIMS IS COMPOSED OF TWO SUBSYSTEMS THE DUST PRODUCTION MECHANISM (DPM) AND THE CLOUD MANIPULATION SYSTEM (CMS). THE DMP CREATES CLOUDS OF DUST PARTICLES FROM ON-BOARD RESERVOIR CARTRIDGES AND INJECTS THEM INTO THE MAIN EXPERIMENT CHAMBER. THIS SUBSYSTEM ALLOWS FOR VARIOUS DUST TYPES AND CLOUD NUMBER DENSITIES TO BE CREATED. THE CMS USES THERMOPHORESIS TO CONTROL THE POSITION OF THE DUST CLOUD THUS COMPENSATING FOR ANY RESIDUAL ACCELERATIONS THAT MIGHT INDUCE CLOUD DRIFT. THE CMS IS ALSO ABLE TO INCREASE THE COLLISION RATE INSIDE THE CLOUD THUS CONTROLLING THE INTER-PARTICLE COLLISION CONDITIONS AND PARTICLE GROWTH. THE DUST GRAINS WITHIN THE CLOUD WILL BE OBSERVED FROM TWO DIFFERENT ANGLES USING HIGH-SPEED CAMERAS THUS CREATING A 3D IMAGE OF THE CLOUD. THE GENERATION TRAPPING AND CONTROLLED MOTION OF A DUST CLOUD INSIDE THE DIMS PAYLOAD COMPLETES ONE EXPERIMENT RUN AND WILL LAST 40 S. DURING THE 3 MINUTES OF MICROGRAVITY PROVIDED BY THE BLUE ORIGIN FLIGHT WE WILL RUN FOUR EXPERIMENT RUNS TESTING CMS OPERATIONS AT THREE DIFFERENT DUST TYPES AND TWO DIFFERENT GAS PRESSURES. THIS WILL ALLOW US TO VERIFY AND VALIDATE NUMERICAL SIMULATIONS OF DUST CLOUD RESPONSE TO THERMOPHORESIS IN A RAREFIED GAS. THE DEMONSTRATION OF THE DIMS TECHNOLOGY IN LONG-TERM MICROGRAVITY CONDITIONS (SUBORBITAL FLIGHT) WILL RESULT IN A NEW RESEARCH TOOL THAT CAN BE USED IN THE FUTURE BOTH ON SUBORBITAL FLIGHTS AND ON ORBITAL PLATFORMS SUCH AS THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION (ISS) OR A SMALLSAT. THIS PROJECT IS THEREFORE ALIGNED WITH TOPIC 2 OF THE NASA FLIGHT OPPORTUNITIES (FO) APPENDIX F1 OF THE SPACETECH- REDDI-2018 ANNOUNCEMENT. DUE TO THE OMNIPRESENCE OF DUST IN THE UNIVERSE A GREAT NUMBER OF END USERS OF THE PAYLOAD CAN BE IDENTIFIED SUCH AS ASTRONOMERS ASTROCHEMISTS PLANETARY SCIENTISTS ETC. DIMS WILL THEREFORE ADDRESS SEVERAL GOALS AND CORE QUESTIONS OF THE 2018 NASA STRATEGIC PLAN AS WELL AS THE ASTROPHYSICS PLANETARY SCIENCES AND ATMOSPHERIC SCIENCES DECADAL SURVEYS.

THE STUDY OF DUST PARTICLES IN THE UNIVERSE IS RELEVANT TO NUMEROUS FIELDS OF RESEARCH INCLUDING ASTRONOMY PLANETARY AND ATMOSPHERIC SCIENCES. IN PARTICULAR THE LEVITATION OF DUST CLOUDS FOR THE STUDY OF THEIR EVOLUTION OR INTERACTION WITH LIGHT IS CRUCIAL TO THE UNDERSTANDING OF MANY ENVIRONMENTS IN SPACE (PROTOPLANETARY DISKS INTERSTELLAR MEDIUM ETC.). HOWEVER THE CHALLENGES OF LEVITATING DUST CLOUDS IN 1G INCLUDE SIZE SORTING DUE TO GRAVITY AND PREFERENTIAL PARTICLE ORIENTATION DUE TO THE LEVITATING MEDIUM. CLOUD LEVITATION IN MICROGRAVITY IS ALSO LIMITED BY HARDWARE CONSTRAINTS (CELL WALLS) AND RESIDUAL ACCELERATIONS OF THE FLIGHT PLATFORM. THE DUST IN-SITU MANIPULATION SYSTEM (DIMS) TECHNOLOGY BUILDS ON PAST EXPERIMENTS IN ORDER TO OFFER A FLEXIBLE LONG-TERM MICROGRAVITY PLATFORM FOR FUTURE DUST EXPERIMENTS. IN PARTICULAR DIMS WILL ALLOW FOR THE OBSERVATION OF AN UNDISTURBED (NO PHYSICAL CONTACT BETWEEN GRAINS AND TEST CELL WALLS) DUST CLOUD FOR SEVERAL MINUTES (NO CLOUD SHIFTING) WHICH HAS NEVER BEEN DEMONSTRATED YET. THE PHYSICAL CONCEPT AT THE CORE OF THE DIMS TECHNOLOGY IS THERMOPHORESIS: THE RESPONSE OF DUST PARTICLES INSIDE A RAREFIED GAS TO THE FORCE OF A TEMPERATURE GRADIENT. THE OBJECTIVE OF THE TEST FLIGHT WITH BLUE ORIGIN IS THE DEMONSTRATION OF DIMS FUNCTIONALITY AND OPERATION UNDER SEVERAL MINUTES OF MICROGRAVITY. TO THIS END DIMS IS COMPOSED OF TWO SUBSYSTEMS THE DUST PRODUCTION MECHANISM (DPM) AND THE CLOUD MANIPULATION SYSTEM (CMS). THE DMP CREATES CLOUDS OF DUST PARTICLES FROM ON-BOARD RESERVOIR CARTRIDGES AND INJECTS THEM INTO THE MAIN EXPERIMENT CHAMBER. THIS SUBSYSTEM ALLOWS FOR VARIOUS DUST TYPES AND CLOUD NUMBER DENSITIES TO BE CREATED. THE CMS USES THERMOPHORESIS TO CONTROL THE POSITION OF THE DUST CLOUD THUS COMPENSATING FOR ANY RESIDUAL ACCELERATIONS THAT MIGHT INDUCE CLOUD DRIFT. THE CMS IS ALSO ABLE TO INCREASE THE COLLISION RATE INSIDE THE CLOUD THUS CONTROLLING THE INTER-PARTICLE COLLISION CONDITIONS AND PARTICLE GROWTH. THE DUST GRAINS WITHIN THE CLOUD WILL BE OBSERVED FROM TWO DIFFERENT ANGLES USING HIGH-SPEED CAMERAS THUS CREATING A 3D IMAGE OF THE CLOUD. THE GENERATION TRAPPING AND CONTROLLED MOTION OF A DUST CLOUD INSIDE THE DIMS PAYLOAD COMPLETES ONE EXPERIMENT RUN AND WILL LAST 40 S. DURING THE 3 MINUTES OF MICROGRAVITY PROVIDED BY THE BLUE ORIGIN FLIGHT WE WILL RUN FOUR EXPERIMENT RUNS TESTING CMS OPERATIONS AT THREE DIFFERENT DUST TYPES AND TWO DIFFERENT GAS PRESSURES. THIS WILL ALLOW US TO VERIFY AND VALIDATE NUMERICAL SIMULATIONS OF DUST CLOUD RESPONSE TO THERMOPHORESIS IN A RAREFIED GAS. THE DEMONSTRATION OF THE DIMS TECHNOLOGY IN LONG-TERM MICROGRAVITY CONDITIONS (SUBORBITAL FLIGHT) WILL RESULT IN A NEW RESEARCH TOOL THAT CAN BE USED IN THE FUTURE BOTH ON SUBORBITAL FLIGHTS AND ON ORBITAL PLATFORMS SUCH AS THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION (ISS) OR A SMALLSAT. THIS PROJECT IS THEREFORE ALIGNED WITH TOPIC 2 OF THE NASA FLIGHT OPPORTUNITIES (FO) APPENDIX F1 OF THE SPACETECH- REDDI-2018 ANNOUNCEMENT. DUE TO THE OMNIPRESENCE OF DUST IN THE UNIVERSE A GREAT NUMBER OF END USERS OF THE PAYLOAD CAN BE IDENTIFIED SUCH AS ASTRONOMERS ASTROCHEMISTS PLANETARY SCIENTISTS ETC. DIMS WILL THEREFORE ADDRESS SEVERAL GOALS AND CORE QUESTIONS OF THE 2018 NASA STRATEGIC PLAN AS WELL AS THE ASTROPHYSICS PLANETARY SCIENCES AND ATMOSPHERIC SCIENCES DECADAL SURVEYS.