Related papers: A Cubesat Centrifuge for Long Duration Milligravit…
The Chelyabinsk meteorite is a highly shocked, low porosity, ordinary chondrite, probably similar to S- or Q-type asteroids. Therefore, nanoindentation experiments on this meteorite allow us to obtain key data to understand the physical…
The discovery of two interstellar objects passing through the Solar System, 1I/`Oumuamua and 2I/Borisov, implies that a galactic population exists with a spatial number density of order $\sim0.1$ au$^{-3}$. The forthcoming Rubin Observatory…
Recent miniaturization of electronics in very small, low-cost and low-power configurations suitable for use in spacecraft have inspired innovative small-scale satellite concepts, such as ChipSats, centimeter-scale satellites with a mass of…
Granular materials of different sizes are present on the surface of several atmosphere-less Solar System bodies. The phenomena related to granular materials have been studied in the framework of the discipline called Granular Physics; that…
We present recent improvements in the simulation of regolith sampling processes in microgravity using the numerical particle method smooth particle hydrodynamics (SPH). We use an elastic-plastic soil constitutive model for large deformation…
High-resolution Very-Long-Baseline Interferometry observations of relativistic jets are essential to constrain fundamental parameters of jet formation models. At a distance of 249 Mpc, Cygnus A is a unique target for such studies, being the…
In January 2006, the Stardust mission will return the first samples from a solid solar-system body since Apollo, and the first samples of contemporary interstellar dust ever collected. Although sophisticated laboratory instruments exist for…
This paper describes the techniques and physical parameters used to produce stable centimetric water drops in microgravity, and to study single cavitation bubbles inside such drops (Parabolic Flight Campaigns, European Space Agency ESA).…
We present preliminary results on sensitivity of experiments with slow neutrons to constrain additional forces in a wide distance range: from picometers to micrometers. In the sub-nanometer range, available data on lengths of neutron…
The Center for Astrophysics,Space Physics, and Engineering Research (CASPER) has completed construction and calibration of a Light Gas Gun (LGG), which is used for low velocity impact studies. At geosynchronous orbit, space debris can…
On-orbit close proximity operations involve robotic spacecraft maneuvering and making decisions for a growing number of mission scenarios demanding autonomy, including on-orbit assembly, repair, and astronaut assistance. Of these scenarios,…
We investigated the population of asteroids in comet-like orbits using available asteroid size and albedo catalogs of data taken with the Infrared Astronomical Satellite, AKARI, and the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer on the basis of…
SAGE (SagnAc interferometer for Gravitational wavE) is a fast track project for a space observatory based on multiple 12-U CubeSats in geostationary orbit. The objective of this project is to create a Sagnac interferometer with 73000 km…
For the investigation of collisions among protoplanetesimal dust aggregates, we performed microgravity experiments in which the impacts of high-porosity mm-sized dust aggregates into 2.5 cm-sized high-porosity dust aggregates can be…
Gravity differs from all other known fundamental forces since it is best described as a curvature of spacetime. For that reason it remains resistant to unifications with quantum theory. Gravitational interaction is fundamentally weak and…
We describe a setup to perform systematic studies on the spreading of droplets of complex fluids under microgravity conditions. Tweaking the gravitational acceleration under which droplets are deposited provides access to different regimes…
Gravimetry is a well-established technique for the determination of sub-surface mass distribution needed in several fields of geoscience, and various types of gravimeters have been developed over the last 50 years. Among them, quantum…
We describe the non-relativistic time evolution of an ultra-cold degenerate quantum gas (bosons/fermions) falling in Earth's gravity during long times (10 sec) and over large distances (100 m). This models a drop tower experiment that is…
The detection of apparent anomalous forces in the vicinity of high-Tc superconductors under non equilibrium conditions has stimulated an experimental research in which the operating parameters of the experiment have been pushed to values…
Hubble Space Telescope observations of active asteroid 324P/La Sagra near perihelion show continued mass loss consistent with the sublimation of near-surface ice. Isophotes of the coma measured from a vantage point below the orbital plane…