title: New experimental capability to investigate the hypervelocity micrometeoroid bombardment of cryogenic surfaces.
abstract: Ice is prevalent throughout the solar system and beyond. Though the evolution of many of these icy surfaces is highly dependent on associated micrometeoroid impact phenomena, experimental investigation of these impacts has been extremely limited, especially at the impactor speeds encountered in space. The dust accelerator facility at the Institute for Modeling Plasmas, Atmospheres, and Cosmic Dust (IMPACT) of NASA's Solar System Exploration Research Virtual Institute has developed a novel cryogenic system that will facilitate future study of hypervelocity impacts into ice and icy regolith. The target consists of a copper block, cooled by liquid nitrogen, upon which layers of vapor-deposited ice, pre-frozen ice, or icy regolith can be built in a controlled and quantifiable environment. This ice can be grown from a variety of materials, including H2O, CH3OH, NH3, and slurries containing nanophase iron. Ice temperatures can be varied between 96 K and 150 K and ice thickness greater than 150 nm can be accurately measured. Importantly, the composition of ion plumes created during micrometeoroid impacts onto these icy layers can be measured even in trace amounts by in situ time-of-flight mass spectroscopy. In this paper, we present the fundamental design components of the cryogenic target chamber at IMPACT and proof-of-concept results from target development and from first impacts into thick layers of water ice.
authors.affiliation: Institute for Modeling Plasma, Atmospheres and Cosmic Dust (IMPACT), University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado 80309, USA.
authors.forename: Andrew Oakleigh
authors.initials: AO
authors.lastname: Nelson
authors.affiliation: Institute for Modeling Plasma, Atmospheres and Cosmic Dust (IMPACT), University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado 80309, USA.
authors.forename: Richard
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Dee
authors.affiliation: Science Division, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, 4800 Oak Grove Drive, Pasadena, California 91109, USA.
authors.forename: Murthy S
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Gudipati
authors.affiliation: Institute for Modeling Plasma, Atmospheres and Cosmic Dust (IMPACT), University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado 80309, USA.
authors.forename: Mihály
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Horányi
authors.affiliation: Institute for Modeling Plasma, Atmospheres and Cosmic Dust (IMPACT), University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado 80309, USA.
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: James
authors.affiliation: Institute for Modeling Plasma, Atmospheres and Cosmic Dust (IMPACT), University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado 80309, USA.
authors.forename: Sascha
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kempf
authors.affiliation: Institute for Modeling Plasma, Atmospheres and Cosmic Dust (IMPACT), University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado 80309, USA.
authors.forename: Tobin
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Munsat
authors.affiliation: Institute for Modeling Plasma, Atmospheres and Cosmic Dust (IMPACT), University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado 80309, USA.
authors.forename: Zoltán
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Sternovsky
authors.affiliation: Institute for Modeling Plasma, Atmospheres and Cosmic Dust (IMPACT), University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado 80309, USA.
authors.forename: Zach
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Ulibarri