Microgravity Research

Our group is interested in the way materials behave in microgravity, such as might be present on asteroid surfaces and in the interplanetary medium.  By understanding how solids move in microgravity conditions, and how minerals and phases of different size and density might be separated, we might better understand the properties of primitive solar system objects like meteorites.  Understanding how dust behaves under microgravity conditions might also help us to build spacecraft and spacecraft instruments to explore the dusty regions of space such as the surfaces of asteroids and comets.

Our microgravity “laboratory” is a special aircraft that NASA operates.  This aircraft flies out of Ellington Field, near the Johnson Space Center, and flies over the Gulf of Mexico.  By climbing steeply and then plunging, it generates about 25 seconds of microgravity inside the plane as it goes “over the top”, and it can do this about 40 times before it runs out of fuel.  To date, we flown four campaigns, two were flown by teams of undergraduate students, two were flown by researchers from our group and engineers from industry.

Campaign 1.

Campaign 3.

Student’s proposal abstract

Photographs

Photographs

Publication

Publication

Campaign 2.

Campaign 4.

Student’s proposal abstract

Photographs

Photographs

Publication

Publication

 

Overview of campaigns 1-3 with reference to mission operations at asteroids.

 

Publication

 

 

Click here for list of papers on our microgravity research

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