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H. L. K. Manning (Concordia College)
Dusty environments in the solar system such as comets and interstellar dust are the focus of many current investigations. Instruments performing in-situ measurements of dust particles require laboratory testing and calibrating. Laboratory simulations of cosmic dust impacts can be created with a dust particle accelerator. In 1975, Concordia College in Moorhead, Minnesota acquired a 2 MeV dust particle accelerator from NASA/GSFC. We are refurbishing the system, and have it operational. In addition to pre-flight tests and calibrations, this accelerator is useful in studying impact processes on materials and testing dust impact detectors and capture cells. Preliminary studies of dust particle size, speed and charge are presented.
The author(s) of this abstract have provided an email address for comments about the abstract: manning@cord.edu