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arXiv · 1506.02225

Silica aerogel for capturing intact interplanetary dust particles for the Tanpopo experiment

Makoto Tabata·Hajime Yano·Hideyuki Kawai·Eiichi Imai·Yuko Kawaguchi·Hirofumi Hashimoto·Akihiko Yamagishi
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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.

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Makoto Tabata, Hajime Yano, Hideyuki Kawai, Eiichi Imai, Yuko Kawaguchi, Hirofumi Hashimoto, Akihiko Yamagishi. 2015-06-07. Silica aerogel for capturing intact interplanetary dust particles for the Tanpopo experiment. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11084-015-9423-8

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