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Media Relations Office The Open University Walton Hall Milton Keynes MK7 6AA Direct Lines 01908 653343/ 653256 01908 653248/652580 Fax 01908 652247 [email protected] News site: www.open.ac.uk/media/ news release For the attention of: news/science editors PR4667 21st November 2002 NEW OU LABORATORY TO TEST SPACE DEBRIS AND COSMIC DUST Space – the final frontier – is a crowded frontier. Not only is it filled with the natural dust that we see as shooting stars, but it is also littered with man-made objects such as satellite fragments, dumped human waste, and even an astronaut’s glove! Tests at a new Open University laboratory will help the progress of space exploration by providing information for engineers to protect spacecraft and instruments from the erosive effects of such ‘space debris’ and ‘cosmic dust’. The Open University’s Planetary and Space Sciences Research Institute (PSSRI), who are at the forefront of developing space missions and instruments, opens its new purpose built HyperVelocity Impact Laboratory this month. Travelling at supersonic speeds, a millimetre-sized particle of space dust impacting on an object could cause major damage. Cosmic dust originates from comets, asteroids, the moon and planets as well as stardust that may pre-date our solar system. PSSRI are among a small group of scientists who conduct experiments assessing the behaviour of space dust, to help combat its potentially damaging effects and to learn more about the solar system’s origins. A bullet from a normal gun travels at less than 1km per second. In space, however, particles travel at speeds of tens of km per second (10,000-100,000 mph). At these speeds objects as minute as a tenth of the size of a pinhead could break a solar cell which provides power to a spacecraft. Space hardware returned to Earth has shown damage due to impacts from small pieces of space dust. The space shuttle has its windows routinely replaced due to ‘stone-chips’ from space dust and the solar M/F 2 panels on the Hubble space telescope appeared as if “sandblasted” by particles when returned after years in space. The new two-storey laboratory houses two Van De Graaff generators, which accelerate test dust particles at similar speeds found in space. A further dust accelerator, the Light Gas Gun, fires larger particles at slower speeds, a mere 7km per second (16,000 mph). Designed by the OU’s Professor Tony McDonnell, it is unique in that it can fire horizontally or swing vertically to measure dust impacts onto liquids or dusty or icy surfaces as found on other planets or moons. The laboratory is one of the many projects initiated when the PSSRI, headed by Professor Colin Pillinger FRS, and staff formerly at the University of Kent amalgamated two years ago. Additional facilities in the new laboratory will allow PSSRI scientists to recreate on a small scale the conditions on the surfaces of other planets to develop and test space instruments. These include a chamber to reproduce the possible liquid surface of Titan, Saturn’s largest moon, at –180C, and another to generate ‘dust devils’ - mini tornadoes that are known to exist on Mars. This machine was designed and developed by OU PhD student Tim Ringrose. Dr John Zarnecki, PSSRI’s Reader in Space and Planetary Sciences, believes the new laboratory is equipped to provide vital information about space dust and the Earth’s origins. He said: "If we want to protect our hardware in space then we have to understand the nature of space debris and the threat that it posses to astronauts and scientific instruments. The new laboratory will also help us to learn about the origins of the Earth and Solar System by developing instruments to work in some of these alien environments." Notes to Editors: The Dean of Science, Steve Swithenby, will open the Planetary and Space Sciences Research Institute’s (PSSRI) new HyperVelocity Impact Laboratory (and associated Planetary Environment Laboratory) at 11:30am on the 26th November 2002. Please contact the Media Relations Office for more information and photographs. To find out more about the Planetary and Space Sciences Research Institute log onto www.pssri.open.ac.uk Media Contacts: Dr John Zarnecki PSSRI 01908 659599 Dr Simon Green PSSRI 01908 659601 Eulina Clairmont Open University Media Relations 01908 653248