We have developed a laboratory experiment to simulate ice surface environmental conditions on Europa and other icy worlds. The project studies the possible formation of ice penitentes in a vacuum environment, while controlling background pressure, ice and wall temperatures, ice chemical compositions, and incident photon flux. The experiment consists of two separate apparatus: a static testbed in which illumination conditions remain fixed, and a diurnal testbed in which a motorized linear stage sweeps a solar simulator source across the ice surface to simulate diurnal variations. The static testbed primarily serves as a platform for short-term tests at temperatures from 200K to 273K with moderate vacuum (10 Pa to atmospheric), while the diurnal testbed can achieve cryogenic temperatures down to 80K and a vacuum of 1x10-4 Pa. Preliminary results show the formation of sublimation- driven ice structures at Earth-like temperatures and moderate vacuum conditions close to the equilibrium vapor pressure curve for pure water.
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