SOW.pdf

Specifications

Background:

Our experiment is the continuation of prior ROSES funded research, which, due to age, requires the replacement, and upgrade of a Thermogravimetric System. This system is essential to enable necessary measurements of thermodynamic data applicable to the formation of chemical and mineral species with implications for research in areas ranging from interstellar dust, to solar system formation, and extrasolar planetary models. This unit will directly measure vapor pressures at high temperatures (2400C) and in a variety of gas atmospheres (from reducing to oxidizing) leading to higher fidelity simulations of solar system processes needed by research collaborations across code 600 and with the greater scientific community.

This system would replace and upgrade our current system that has been productive for over 20 years. Initially purchased to measure the previously unknown vapor pressure of SiO, it has since measured the vapor pressures of multiple high‐temperature atmospheric molecules that have changed our understanding of condensation rates for planetary formation and extrasolar planetary systems. The current system has long been kept working through replacement parts (that are becoming much more difficult to find) but has effectively reached the end of its life. Our present system will enable currently funded research (ROSES and ISFM) projects to conclude, but a new, more efficient unit is required as the main instrument used for such measurements in order for future proposals to be credible. Collaborators at GSFC have expressed the importance of having these measurements in order to understand and predict the atmospheres of extrasolar planets. Outside collaborations with meteoriticists such as Tim McCoy (Smithsonian NMNH) will be enabled to understand the origin of terrestrial atmospheres from primitive asteroidal sources.

Scope of Work:

We require a High Temperature Thermogravimetric system with High Sensitivity Balance.

This system was chosen due to its extremely high temperature allowing for measurements to be taken at temperatures never completed, and for its high sensitivity balance which will measure more precise and detailed data in each experiment.

Deliverables:

The thermogravimetric system will be delivered to 8800 Greenbelt Road:B34:C153 at NASA Goddard.

Delivery is 6 months after drawing approval.