A Simulation Platform for Small Solar System Bodies using the Einstein-Elevator

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel Earth-based simulation platform using the Einstein-Elevator to replicate the low-gravity environments of small solar system bodies for experimental research.

Contribution

It presents a new acceleration system within the Einstein-Elevator that accurately simulates SSSB gravity levels between 10^-2 g and 10^-4 g, enabling realistic experiments.

Findings

Achieved simulation of gravity levels from 10^-2 g to 10^-3 g.

Maximum deviation in gravity simulation is +/-5x10^-4 g.

The setup allows for experiments under vacuum and low-gravity conditions.

Abstract

Small solar system bodies are becoming increasingly important as missions like NASA's OSIRIS-REx show. However, the study of the characteristics and behavior of these objects on Earth is a challenge as the simulation of their environmental conditions is difficult. We present in this paper an approach to enable the simulation of SSSB conditions in a drop tower facility on Earth, which is being addressed as part of the AKUS ("Activity of Comets under Partial Gravity") project. This especially concerns their prevailing gravity levels, which range between 10^-2 g and 10^-4 g. In order to simulate the conditions of SSSB as accurately as possible, an acceleration system based on servo motors and spindle axes has been developed. The accelerations are transferred from the motors to the spindle axes containing a comet-like sample. These are together placed inside a vacuum chamber providing a vacuum quality of 10^-6 mbar. The whole setup is installed inside the Einstein-Elevator. Our results show that, with the current setup, we are able to generate conditions from 10^-2 g down to 10^-3 g. The maximum deviations under these conditions are +/-5x10^-4 g. Additionally, this setup offers the opportunity to conduct different kinds of experiments in which the described gravity levels and vacuum conditions are needed.