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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