Sampling and Analysis of Impact Crater Residues Found on the Wide Field Planetary Camera-2 RadiatorAfter nearly 16 years in low Earth orbit (LEO), the Wide Field Planetary Camera-2 (WFPC2) was recovered from the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) in May 2009, during the 12 day shuttle mission designated STS-125. The WFPC-2 radiator had been struck by approximately 700 impactors producing crater features 300 microns and larger in size. Following optical inspection in 2009, agreement was reached for joint NASA-ESA study of crater residues, in 2011. Over 480 impact features were extracted at NASA Johnson Space Center's (JSC) Space Exposed Hardware clean-room and curation facility during 2012, and were shared between NASA and ESA. We describe analyses conducted using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) - energy dispersive X-ray spectrometry (EDX): by NASA at JSC's Astromaterials Research and Exploration Science (ARES) Division; and for ESA at the Natural History Museum (NHM), with Ion beam analysis (IBA) using a scanned proton microbeam at the University of Surrey Ion Beam Centre (IBC).
Document ID
20130012725
Acquisition Source
Johnson Space Center
Document Type
Conference Paper
Authors
Kearsley, A. T. (Museum of Natural History London, United Kingdom)
Grime, G. W. (Surrey Univ. Guildford, United Kingdom)
Colaux, J. L. (Surrey Univ. Guildford, United Kingdom)
Jeynes, C. (Surrey Univ. Guildford, United Kingdom)
Palitsin, V. V. (Surrey Univ. Guildford, United Kingdom)
Webb, R, P. (Surrey Univ. Guildford, United Kingdom)
Griffin, T. J. (NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, MD, United States)
Reed, B. B. (NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, MD, United States)
Anz-Meador, P. D. (NASA Johnson Space Center Houston, TX, United States)
Kou, J.-C. (NASA Johnson Space Center Houston, TX, United States)
Robinson, G. A. (NASA Johnson Space Center Houston, TX, United States)
Opiela, J. N. (NASA Johnson Space Center Houston, TX, United States)
Gerlach, L. (European Space Agency. European Space Research and Technology Center, ESTEC Noordwijk, Netherlands)