3 MV hypervelocity dust accelerator at the Colorado Center for Lunar Dust and Atmospheric Studies

Journal Article · Sun Jul 15 00:00:00 EDT 2012 · Review of Scientific Instruments

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4732820· OSTI ID:22093674

Shu, Anthony; Horanyi, Mihaly; Kempf, Sascha; Thomas, Evan ^[1]; Collette, Andrew; Drake, Keith; Northway, Paige ^[1]; Gruen, Eberhard ^[1]; Mocker, Anna ^[1]; Munsat, Tobin ^[1]; Srama, Ralf ^[2]; others, and

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1. Colorado Center for Lunar Dust and Atmospheric Studies, Boulder, Colorado 80303 (United States)
2. MPI fuer Kernphysik, Saupfercheckweg 1, D-69117 Heidelberg (Germany)

A hypervelocity dust accelerator for studying micrometeorite impacts has been constructed at the Colorado Center for Lunar Dust and Atmospheric Studies (CCLDAS) at the University of Colorado. Based on the Max-Planck-Instituet fuer Kernphysik (MPI-K) accelerator, this accelerator is capable of emitting single particles of a specific mass and velocity selected by the user. The accelerator consists of a 3 MV Pelletron generator with a dust source, four image charge pickup detectors, and two interchangeable target chambers: a large high-vacuum test bed and an ultra-high vacuum impact study chamber. The large test bed is a 1.2 m diameter, 1.5 m long cylindrical vacuum chamber capable of pressures as low as 10{sup -7} torr while the ultra-high vacuum chamber is a 0.75 m diameter, 1.1 m long chamber capable of pressures as low as 10{sup -10} torr. Using iron dust of up to 2 microns in diameter, final velocities have been measured up to 52 km/s. The spread of the dust particles and the effect of electrostatic focusing have been measured using a long exposure CCD and a quartz target. Furthermore, a new technique of particle selection is being developed using real time digital filtering techniques. Signals are digitized and then cross-correlated with a shaped filter, resulting in a suppressed noise floor. Improvements over the MPI-K design, which include a higher operating voltage and digital filtering for detection, increase the available parameter space of dust emitted by the accelerator. The CCLDAS dust facility is a user facility open to the scientific community to assist with instrument calibrations and experiments.

• OSTI ID: 22093674
• Journal Information: Review of Scientific Instruments, Vol. 83, Issue 7; Other Information: (c) 2012 American Institute of Physics; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0034-6748
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
CALIBRATION
CHARGE-COUPLED DEVICES
COLORADO
DESIGN
DIGITAL FILTERS
IMAGES
IRON
MASS
METEORITES
MOON
NOISE
PARTICLES
PELLETRON ACCELERATORS
PLANETARY ATMOSPHERES
QUARTZ
SPACE
TARGET CHAMBERS
VELOCITY