Aerogel keystones: Extraction of complete hypervelocity impact events from aerogel collectors

Abstract

In January 2006, the Stardust mission will return the first samples from a solid solar system body beyond the Moon and the first samples of contemporary interstellar dust ever collected. Although sophisticated laboratory intruments exist for the analysis of Stardust samples, techniques for the recovery of particles and particle residues from aerogel collectors remain primitive. Here, we describe our recent progress in developing techniques for extracting small volumes of aerogel, which we have called "keystones," which completely contain particle impacts but minimize the damage to the sorrounding aerogel collector. These keystones can be fixed to custom-designed micromachined silicon fixtures (so called "microforklifts"). In this configuration, the samples are self-supporting, which cna be advantages may also be extracted and placed onto a substrate without a fixture. We have also demonstrated the capability of homologously crushing these unmounted keystones for analysis techniques that demand flat samples. © Meteoritical Society, 2004.