Tanpopo cosmic dust collector: Silica aerogel production and bacterial DNA contamination analysis

TL;DR

This paper reports on the development of hydrophobic silica aerogels for capturing cosmic dust on the ISS, demonstrating effective dust collection and minimal DNA contamination suitable for astrobiological analysis.

Contribution

The study introduces a novel silica aerogel with ultra-low density that effectively captures cosmic dust and exhibits low DNA contamination, enabling biological analysis in space.

Findings

Successfully captured simulated cosmic dust at 6 km/s

Background DNA contamination was below detection limits

Aerogel shows promise for astrobiological studies in space

Abstract

Hydrophobic silica aerogels with ultra-low densities have been designed and developed as cosmic dust capture media for the Tanpopo mission which is proposed to be carried out on the International Space Station. Glass particles as a simulated cosmic dust with 30 \mu m in diameter and 2.4 g/cm^3 in density were successfully captured by the novel aerogel at a velocity of 6 km/s. Background levels of contaminated DNA in the ultra-low density aerogel were lower than the detection limit of a polymerase chain reaction assay. These results show that the manufactured aerogel has good performance as a cosmic dust collector and sufficient quality in respect of DNA contamination. The aerogel is feasible for the biological analyses of captured cosmic dust particles in the astrobiological studies.