rus
Issue #5/2021
B.A.Loginov
The world’s first scanning probe microscope as a satellite a new stage of the scientific satellite laboratories
The world’s first scanning probe microscope as a satellite a new stage of the scientific satellite laboratories
DOI: 10.22184/1993-8578.2021.14.5.270.274
In this paper we proposed a new stage of the experimental methods for various sciences as exemplified by the world’s first scanning probe microscope (SPM) designed as a satellite, i.e., taking out experiments out of the Earth laboratories directly in space to make them satellites complete with instrumentation and a set of objects to be studied.
In this paper we proposed a new stage of the experimental methods for various sciences as exemplified by the world’s first scanning probe microscope (SPM) designed as a satellite, i.e., taking out experiments out of the Earth laboratories directly in space to make them satellites complete with instrumentation and a set of objects to be studied.
Теги: instrumental indenting microscope satellite-laboratory зондовый микроскоп инструментальное наноидентирование спутник-лаборатория
The world’s first scanning probe microscope as a satellite a new stage of the scientific satellite laboratories
INTRODUCTION
When more than 40-year old history of the probe microscopy development [1, 2] came in contact with an even more sophisticated space industry on the Sirius Educational Center multidisciplinary platform (Sochi) has suddenly led to germination of a novel idea to develop a new class of experimental methods for various sciences. The first reason was to reduce the cost of small satellites, including their launch into space, e.g., down to USD 30,000 in case of CubeSat series small satellites having volume ranging from one to six litres. In future we expect a further decrease of these costs down to about USD 5,000 for still smaller satellites in the next few years. In this connection the author put forward and developed an idea that it makes sense to shift many experiments, e.g., a study of the spacecraft materials that are now made on the Earth in various high-energy vacuum installations, including accelerators and tokamaks, into space so that they are conducted in satellites equipped with necessary instruments to measure characteristics of the materials and testing them in the real space environment, not under the simulated conditions on the Earth. Actually, we can talk about a development of the laboratory satellites That means, actually, manufacturing of the laboratory satellites of various applications.
Numerous laboratory satellites flying in space can be controlled from the Earth and send us thousands of frames and other data related to the cosmic object’s behavior, including hard materials planned to be used in perspective spacecraft and, for example, microbiology objects. Instrumentation installed on such satellites can be easily powered by the storage batteries recharged from solar cell batteries as required, if necessary.
We can even dream that in future it will be possible to automatically and much faster than on the Earth to transfer the studied objects and samples from one laboratory satellite having specific devices to another space laboratory to make research of other kind.
At that, the name of the Russian program "Duty for the Planet" intended to transfer dozens of university satellites is, possibly, suitable for satellite laboratory as well, because by shifting research into space we can reduce a number of dangerous research plants on the Earth to make it more secure.
The cost of a satellite laboratory which depreciates completely, for instance, in 2-3 years, can be ten times less than the cost of experiments conducted in the Earth plants. Afterwards such a space laboratory will, naturally, lose its orbit from, say, 500 kilometres, and burn away in the dense atmosphere.
The solar wind, which represents a flow of ions with speeds up to 200 km / s and above, a wide range of strong infrared, visible and ultraviolet light, X-ray of various rigidity, high-energy cosmic particles, as well as many micro and nano-dust particles, flying at cosmic velocities in different orbits, resulting from satellite accidents, in combination with natural-cosmic micro- meteorites [3] of a wide spectrum of velocities and other influences – such are real conditions of the space which are difficult to create on Earth and, consequently, to test materials intended for space application on the Earth.
Besides, even if the task of studying materials to understand the possibilities of their prospective work in space is not set, it can be interesting to investigate the behavior of materials, objects any processes or something else under the open space conditions and a range of the open space influences in the whole spectrum and in the necessary part of it, when excluding some definite influences. Due to the long-term lifetime of a satellite in space, it also opens a possibility of making long-term continuous experiments, which may be interesting, for example, for microbiology.
THE WORLD’S FIRST PROTOTYPE OF AN SPM SATELLITE
An embodiment of the world’s first SPM prototype as a satellite laboratory was announced [4–6] at various online conferences starting from October, 2020.
The satellite microscope was made on the basis of an SMM-2000 series microscope in July 2021 at the site of the Sirius Education Center [10] by a team of ten people (Fig.1, from left to right): a resource specialist of Sirius in nanotechnology program "Great Challenges" Yuri Khripunov from the city of Oryol, Ilya Orazov, a student of MIET from Orel, gifted schoolchildren Catherine Klyukina from Astrakhan, Andrey Lopatin from Biysk, Elizabeth Bespalova from Lipetsk, Mikhail Saprykin from Novosibirsk, Alexander Vankaev from Astrakhan and Nikita Metalnikov from Orel, under the guidance and with the direct participation of the author of this article, as well as with the participation of the MSU’s student Artem Loginov (absent in the photo). The author expresses his gratitude to the team.
Based on our previous experience in the design of various scanning probe microscopes for special applications [2] for satellite microscope, the tasks of autonomous power supply and solar batteries are successfully solved; temperature compensation [7] to preserve operation of a microscope under a cyclical temperature change from –40 to + 120 ° C for almost every hour because of the alternate stay of the satellite in the shade of the Earth when it rotates around it, and on the side of the Sun; survival of performance after loads of up to 50 g, for example, during separation of the first stage of the rocket carrier; long preservation of performance under radiation conditions [8] and strong illumination in infrared, visible and ultraviolet ranges [8, 9] as well as quick search and analysis of dust and meteorites fallen from cosmic space [3].
CONCLUSIONS
Performance of the developed satellite microscope was tested on the exposure of sample materials to plasma and strong ultraviolet illumination; these samples such as grapheme [11–13], bismuth, polymers and ceramics provided by various scientific centers of the country were of interest for use in space (Fig.1). A large number of experimental materials were obtained.
Following the research results, there appeared various publications and patents on design of the satellite-microscope. The author of the article hopes that the idea is vital and that many startups will emerge to create satellite laboratories for quite various purposes, with further coordination of standards for their interaction. ■
Declaration of Competing Interest. The author declares that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
INTRODUCTION
When more than 40-year old history of the probe microscopy development [1, 2] came in contact with an even more sophisticated space industry on the Sirius Educational Center multidisciplinary platform (Sochi) has suddenly led to germination of a novel idea to develop a new class of experimental methods for various sciences. The first reason was to reduce the cost of small satellites, including their launch into space, e.g., down to USD 30,000 in case of CubeSat series small satellites having volume ranging from one to six litres. In future we expect a further decrease of these costs down to about USD 5,000 for still smaller satellites in the next few years. In this connection the author put forward and developed an idea that it makes sense to shift many experiments, e.g., a study of the spacecraft materials that are now made on the Earth in various high-energy vacuum installations, including accelerators and tokamaks, into space so that they are conducted in satellites equipped with necessary instruments to measure characteristics of the materials and testing them in the real space environment, not under the simulated conditions on the Earth. Actually, we can talk about a development of the laboratory satellites That means, actually, manufacturing of the laboratory satellites of various applications.
Numerous laboratory satellites flying in space can be controlled from the Earth and send us thousands of frames and other data related to the cosmic object’s behavior, including hard materials planned to be used in perspective spacecraft and, for example, microbiology objects. Instrumentation installed on such satellites can be easily powered by the storage batteries recharged from solar cell batteries as required, if necessary.
We can even dream that in future it will be possible to automatically and much faster than on the Earth to transfer the studied objects and samples from one laboratory satellite having specific devices to another space laboratory to make research of other kind.
At that, the name of the Russian program "Duty for the Planet" intended to transfer dozens of university satellites is, possibly, suitable for satellite laboratory as well, because by shifting research into space we can reduce a number of dangerous research plants on the Earth to make it more secure.
The cost of a satellite laboratory which depreciates completely, for instance, in 2-3 years, can be ten times less than the cost of experiments conducted in the Earth plants. Afterwards such a space laboratory will, naturally, lose its orbit from, say, 500 kilometres, and burn away in the dense atmosphere.
The solar wind, which represents a flow of ions with speeds up to 200 km / s and above, a wide range of strong infrared, visible and ultraviolet light, X-ray of various rigidity, high-energy cosmic particles, as well as many micro and nano-dust particles, flying at cosmic velocities in different orbits, resulting from satellite accidents, in combination with natural-cosmic micro- meteorites [3] of a wide spectrum of velocities and other influences – such are real conditions of the space which are difficult to create on Earth and, consequently, to test materials intended for space application on the Earth.
Besides, even if the task of studying materials to understand the possibilities of their prospective work in space is not set, it can be interesting to investigate the behavior of materials, objects any processes or something else under the open space conditions and a range of the open space influences in the whole spectrum and in the necessary part of it, when excluding some definite influences. Due to the long-term lifetime of a satellite in space, it also opens a possibility of making long-term continuous experiments, which may be interesting, for example, for microbiology.
THE WORLD’S FIRST PROTOTYPE OF AN SPM SATELLITE
An embodiment of the world’s first SPM prototype as a satellite laboratory was announced [4–6] at various online conferences starting from October, 2020.
The satellite microscope was made on the basis of an SMM-2000 series microscope in July 2021 at the site of the Sirius Education Center [10] by a team of ten people (Fig.1, from left to right): a resource specialist of Sirius in nanotechnology program "Great Challenges" Yuri Khripunov from the city of Oryol, Ilya Orazov, a student of MIET from Orel, gifted schoolchildren Catherine Klyukina from Astrakhan, Andrey Lopatin from Biysk, Elizabeth Bespalova from Lipetsk, Mikhail Saprykin from Novosibirsk, Alexander Vankaev from Astrakhan and Nikita Metalnikov from Orel, under the guidance and with the direct participation of the author of this article, as well as with the participation of the MSU’s student Artem Loginov (absent in the photo). The author expresses his gratitude to the team.
Based on our previous experience in the design of various scanning probe microscopes for special applications [2] for satellite microscope, the tasks of autonomous power supply and solar batteries are successfully solved; temperature compensation [7] to preserve operation of a microscope under a cyclical temperature change from –40 to + 120 ° C for almost every hour because of the alternate stay of the satellite in the shade of the Earth when it rotates around it, and on the side of the Sun; survival of performance after loads of up to 50 g, for example, during separation of the first stage of the rocket carrier; long preservation of performance under radiation conditions [8] and strong illumination in infrared, visible and ultraviolet ranges [8, 9] as well as quick search and analysis of dust and meteorites fallen from cosmic space [3].
CONCLUSIONS
Performance of the developed satellite microscope was tested on the exposure of sample materials to plasma and strong ultraviolet illumination; these samples such as grapheme [11–13], bismuth, polymers and ceramics provided by various scientific centers of the country were of interest for use in space (Fig.1). A large number of experimental materials were obtained.
Following the research results, there appeared various publications and patents on design of the satellite-microscope. The author of the article hopes that the idea is vital and that many startups will emerge to create satellite laboratories for quite various purposes, with further coordination of standards for their interaction. ■
Declaration of Competing Interest. The author declares that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
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