ScholarWorks

Title

Verification of Particle Image Velocimeter for Study of Martian and Lunar Regoliths

Authors

Kristopher Burch, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Boise State UniversityFollow
Eric Wright, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Boise State UniversityFollow
Jozey Mitcham, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Boise State UniversityFollow
Alfredo Bravo Iniguez, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Boise State UniversityFollow

Document Type

Student Presentation

Presentation Date

4-16-2012

Faculty Sponsor

Jim Browning, Don Plumlee, Arvin Farid, and Sin Ming Loo

Abstract

The behavior of dust, or regolith, on Mars and the moon is critical to our understanding of the Martian and lunar environments. The dust interaction with space suits and other equipment is a major concern for long term space missions. Dust on the moon greatly deteriorated the space suits in NASA’s Apollo program. We have developed a test enclosure for the study of dust motion. NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center has developed a Particle Image Velocimeter (PIV) to measure the velocity and size of thousands of moving particles. The PIV was developed as a demonstration project for use on possible future NASA missions to Mars, the moon, or even asteroids. A controllable and stable simulation environment accommodating this PIV device was needed to collect data on the PIV performance. The “Dust Box” is designed to contain the PIV, provide the ability to collect stable and accurate data, and have flexibility to run many different experimental configurations. These configurations involve applying an electric field to deflect charged dust particles by using two biased copper plates, changing the dust flow patterns, and controlling the dust flow rates. We are currently studying particle velocity and charged particle behavior. Lunar and Martian soil simulants (JSC-1/JSC Mars-1) along with standard sand are used in this experiment in order to get the most precise results possible. These experiments will provide a better understanding of regolith behavior and will help verify the ability of the PIV to measure accurately the size and velocity of thousands of dust particles.

Comments

This work is supported by the Idaho Space Grant Consortium under Grant NNG05GG29H

We would like to thank Dr. Brent Bos from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center for providing us with the PIV device, as well as processing collected data

We would like to thank Dr. Carl Allen from NASA’s Johnson Space Center for providing us with Johnson Space Center-Mars 1 soil simulant