Skip to main content

Sampling and Analysis of Impact Crater Residues Found on the Wide Field Planetary Camera-2 Radiator

Anz-meador, P. D. 1, Liou, J.-c. 1, Ross, D. 1, Robinson, G. A. 1, Opiela, J. N. 1, Kearsley, A. T. 1, Grime, G. W. 1, Colaux, J. L. 1, Jeynes, C. 1, Palitsin, V. V. 1, Webb, R. P. 1, Griffin, T. J. 1, Reed, B. B. 1, Gerlach, L.1
Affiliation data not available1

Document details

Publishing year2013 PublisherESA Publishing typeConference Name of conference6th European Conference on Space Debris
Pagesn/a Volume
6
Issue
1
Editors
L. Ouwehand

Abstract

After 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 mu m 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).

Preview