a b s t r a c tDust impacts on aluminum foils during encounter of comet 81P/Wild 2 by the Stardust spacecraft in January 2004 have been simulated using spherical projectiles of monodispersive polymer, glass, and metals, and polydispersive mineral powders of diverse grain shapes. The encounter speed of the cometary particles was a constant and modest 6.1 km s À1 , well within the capabilities of light gas guns, permitting high fidelity experiments to infer dust size, density, and mass from quantitative dimensional analysis of both natural and experimental impact features. Specific interest focused on exceptionally small impactors, all <100 mm and some as small as 1.5 mm. To simulate the compound shape of many Stardust craters required novel, artificial aggregate projectiles of heterogeneous mass distribution. We demonstrate that the dimensional scaling obtained previously for millimeter sized impactors extends to particles as small as 10 mm at 6.1 km s À1 , all yielding a constant relationship for spherical soda lime glass projectiles of diameter (Dp) to crater diameter (Dc) in Al1100 of Dc ¼ 4.6 Dp; however, this ratio seems to decrease for projectiles (10 mm. The overwhelming majority of the Stardust craters are <20 mm in diameter, and substantial challenges remain in quantifying the exact size-frequency distribution of the Wild 2 comet dust. Nevertheless, the current experiments provide improved insights into some of the particles' physical properties.

The two ongoing sample return space missions, Hayabusa2 and OSIRIS-REx are going to return to Earth asteroid regolith from the carbonaceous near-Earth asteroids Ryugu and Bennu. The two main processes that lead to regolith production are the micrometeorite bombardment and the thermal cracking. Here we report the production of a weak simulant material, analogue to carbonaceous meteorites with a CM-like composition, following the preliminary compositional results for Bennu and Ryugu. This asteroid simulant has compressive and flexural strength 1.8 ± 0.17 and 0.7 ± 0.07 MPa, respectively. The thermal conductivity (in air) of the simulant at room temperature is between 0.43 and 0.47 W m −1 K −1. In order to distinguish the type of regolith that is produced by each of these processes, we present and discuss the results of the experimental campaign focused on laboratory hypervelocity impacts, using the 2-stage lightgas gun of the University of Kent, that mimic the micrometeorite bombardment. We find that this process produces both monomineralic and multimineralic fragments, resulting in a difficulty to distinguish the two processes, at least on these weak materials.

The National Compact Stellarator Experiment (NCSX) is a stellarator-tokamak hybrid seeking to combine the good confinement, high beta and moderate aspect ratio of the tokamak with the quasi-steady-state operation and good stability properties of the stellarator. A preliminary list of measurement requirements, intended to satisfy the needs of the phased research plan, provides the basis for a full complement of plasma diagnostics. It is important to consider this full set, even at this early stage, to assess the adequacy of the stellarator design for diagnostic port access. The 3-D nature of the plasma is a measurement challenge, as is the necessity for high spatial resolution to assess the quality of magnetic surfaces. Other diagnostic requirements include the need 2 for re-entrant views that penetrate the cryostat, for a convenient e-beam probe for field line mapping, and for a diagnostic neutral beam for active spectroscopy.

The scientific aims of the ExoMars Raman laser spectrometer (RLS) include identifying biological signatures and evidence of mineralogical processes associated with life. The RLS instrument was optimised to identify carbonaceous material, including reduced carbon. Previous studies suggest that reduced carbon on the Martian surface (perhaps originating from past meteoric bombardment) could provide a feedstock for microbial life. Therefore, its origin, form, and thermal history could greatly inform our understanding of Mars' past habitability. Here, we report on the Raman analysis of a Nakhla meteorite analogue (containing carbonaceous material) that was subjected to shock through projectile impact to simulate the effect of meteorite impact. The characterisation was performed using the RLS Simulator, in an equivalent manner to that planned for ExoMars operations. The spectra obtained verify that the flightrepresentative system can detect reduced carbon in the basaltic sample, discerning between materials that have experienced different levels of thermal processing due to impact shock levels. Furthermore, carbon signatures acquired from the cratered material show an increase in molecular disorder (and we note that this effect will be more evident at higher levels of thermal maturity). This is likely to result from intense shearing forces, suggesting that shock forces within basaltic material may produce more reactive carbon. This result has implications for potential (past) Martian habitability because impacted, reduced carbon may become more biologically accessible. The data presented suggest the RLS instrument will be able to characterise the contribution of impact shock within the landing site region, enhancing our ability to assess habitability.

The NCSX vacuum vessel has a rather unique shape being very closely coupled topologically to the threefold stellerator symmetry of the plasma it contains. This shape does not permit the use of the common forms of pressure vessel analysis and necessitates the reliance on finite element analysis. The current paper describes the NCSX vacuum vessel stress analysis including external pressure, thermal, and electromagnetic loading from internal plasma disruptions and bakeout temperatures of up to 400 degrees centigrade. Buckling and dynamic loading conditions are also considered.