2008 Annual Report - NASA Airborne Science Program

Science Focus: Astromaterials
Sponsor: M. Lindstrom, NASA HQ
Location: North America, Europe
Cosmic Dust
Experiment
The Cosmic Dust Laboratory
at the Johnson Space Center
(JSC) supports the collection
and curation of stratospheric
dust particles, principally to help
scientists study cometary and asteroidal
grains that enter the Earth’s atmosphere.
Many tons of dust grains, including samples
of asteroids and comets, fall from space onto
the Earth’s atmosphere each day. Once
in the stratosphere, this “cosmic dust” and
spacecraft debris joins terrestrial particles
such as volcanic ash, windborne desert dust,
forest fire soot and pollen grains, which are
also of special interest to scientists.
In 2008, the NASA ER-2 and WB-57F aircraft
were again outfitted with special “sticky”
collector plates to capture this dust as it fell
through the stratosphere. A total of 133
flight hours were performed during multiple
dedicated and piggyback flights on the ER-2
(see p. 63) and WB-57, flying primarily over
North American sites. Dr. Michael Zolensky
of NASA Johnson is the Principal Investigator
for the Cosmic Dust Experiment.
Examination of cosmic dust also reveals
much about the population of interplanetary
dust and orbital debris particles, critical
information for engineers planning protection
of Space Station against damage from highvelocity
dust grains. As a result of NASA’s
Stardust mission (which returned particles
from Comet Wild 2), the demand for samples
is at an all time high in the 27-year history
of the Cosmic Dust Program. The terrestrial
dust collected by the Program are revealing
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