Capabilities of the Mars Electrostatics Chamber at Kennedy Space Center

摘要

The Mars Electrostatics Chamber (MEC) in the Electromagnetic Physics Testbed Laboratory at NASA Kennedy Space Center, a cylindrical vacuum chamber with a volume of 1.5m~3, was designed to simulate limited Martian environmental conditions for electrostatics studies as well as for other areas of research. The MEC has been outfitted with an automated control system and a graphical user interface. The automation system consists of four subsystems: pressure control, temperature control, atmosphere control, and pneumatic control. The pressure and temperature control subsystems bring the chamber to 10 mbar and ―90 C. The atmosphere control subsystem maintains a 100% carbon dioxide atmosphere at 10 mbar in the chamber. The pneumatic control system supplies compressed air to the pneumatic valves in the system. The MEC has a 1.43 m X 0.80 m experiment deck, a vacuum depressurization time of 20 min, controlled repressurization time of 10 minutes, and can be repressurized in an emergency in 10 min. The MEC can also be controlled manually to accommodate other environmental conditions. Experiments using the MEC are currently under way.