Tanpopo cosmic dust collector: Silica aerogel production and bacterial DNA contamination analysis

Details Tanpopo cosmic dust collector: Silica aerogel production and bacterial DNA contamination analysis Tanpopo cosmic dust collector: Silica aerogel production and bacterial DNA contamination analysis

2011-12-29

arxiv.org/abs/1112.6224v1

Biological Sciences in Space 25 (2011) 7

Physics

Instrumentation and Detectors

6 pages, 5 figures

Scientific paper

Hydrophobic silica aerogels with ultra-low densities have been designed and developed as cosmic dust capture media for the Tanpopo mission which is proposed to be carried out on the International Space Station. Glass particles as a simulated cosmic dust with 30 \mu m in diameter and 2.4 g/cm^3 in density were successfully captured by the novel aerogel at a velocity of 6 km/s. Background levels of contaminated DNA in the ultra-low density aerogel were lower than the detection limit of a polymerase chain reaction assay. These results show that the manufactured aerogel has good performance as a cosmic dust collector and sufficient quality in respect of DNA contamination. The aerogel is feasible for the biological analyses of captured cosmic dust particles in the astrobiological studies.

Affiliated with

Also associated with

No associations

Rating

Tanpopo cosmic dust collector: Silica aerogel production and bacterial DNA contamination analysis does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.

If you have personal experience with Tanpopo cosmic dust collector: Silica aerogel production and bacterial DNA contamination analysis, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Tanpopo cosmic dust collector: Silica aerogel production and bacterial DNA contamination analysis will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

Comments { 0 }

Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-728283