title: Silica aerogel for capturing intact interplanetary dust particles for the Tanpopo experiment.
abstract: In this paper, we report the progress in developing a silica-aerogel-based cosmic dust capture panel for use in the Tanpopo experiment on the International Space Station (ISS). Previous studies revealed that ultralow-density silica aerogel tiles, comprising two layers with densities of 0.01 and 0.03 g/cm(3) developed using our production technique, were suitable for achieving the scientific objectives of the astrobiological mission. A special density configuration (i.e., box framing) aerogel with a holder was designed to construct the capture panels. Qualification tests for an engineering model of the capture panel as an instrument aboard the ISS were successful. Sixty box-framing aerogel tiles were manufactured in a contamination-controlled environment.
authors: Department of Physics, Chiba University, Chiba, 263-8522, Japan, makoto@hepburn.s.chiba-u.ac.jp.
authors: Makoto
authors: M
authors: Tabata
authors: Hajime
authors: H
authors: Yano
authors: Hideyuki
authors: H
authors: Kawai
authors: Eiichi
authors: E
authors: Imai
authors: Yuko
authors: Y
authors: Kawaguchi
authors: Hirofumi
authors: H
authors: Hashimoto
authors: Akihiko
authors: A
authors: Yamagishi
mesh_terms: D019443:Cosmic Dust / Q000032:analysis*; D018559:Exobiology / Q000379:methods*; D058428:Silica Gel / Q000737:chemistry*; D018531:Spacecraft
chemical_list: D019443:Cosmic Dust; D058428:Silica Gel