µ-SAND
μthermogravimeter-in Situ dust ANalyser and particle size Discriminator (μ-SAND)
Categories: In progress | Montelibretti | National | Earth observation | Sharing Monitoring Technologies
Funding: PRIN 2022
Period: July 2023 – July 2025
Total project budget: €210.000,00
Total budget CNR IIA: € 70.000,00
Scientific Responsible: Emiliano Zampetti
Abstract of the project
The Moon has become one of the most important targets of space exploration and in the framework of future manned lunar missions, the safety of astronauts is a crucial issue, and an accurate knowledge of the environment is essential. Also the characterization of the dusty environment on the Moon is extremely important to understand what resources are available to humans and what kind of processes act to originate and/or destroy. μ-SAND, an innovative instrument for nano-micro-particle size measurements of dust and analysis of volatile compounds in planetary environments. μ-SAND a very low mass instrument, a crucial feature for future missions, especially on nano/micro satellites.
The proposed instrument, μ-SAND (μ-thermo-gravimeter-in situ dust analyzer and particle size discriminator) will be able to achieve both technological and scientific objectives: a) a fully operational microbalance capable of performing particle size discrimination dust (<100 µm); b) a high temperature microbalance capable of performing thermo-gravimetric analyzes up to 773K. These objectives have a great impact on scientific and technological objectives, including technology transfer in industrial and environmental fields in which particle size analysis is becoming of primary importance. The study will build a solid foundation for the future development of low-cost, high-reliability sensors in monitoring systems.
The aim of the μ-SAND project is to study and develop an innovative, small and light device based on a new sensor concept based on Piezoelectric Crystal Microbalance (PCM) for volatile content analysis, detection and discrimination of size of dust grains in different planetary environments.
CNR-IIA
INAF
POLITECNICO DI MILANO
INAF
POLITECNICO DI MILANO
Maria Adam
Xavier Vicar
Sabino Maggi
Christine Tarantino