Presenter(s)
Ashley L. Miller
Abstract
Impact cratering is a process that shapes every planetary body in our solar system, including the Earth. On smaller planetary objects without atmospheres like the Moon and asteroids (e.g. Vesta and Ceres), impact cratering creates a rough surface with varying topography as opposed to a flat, horizontal surface. In general, impact cratering experiments are performed into flat targets to simplify the physics and model craters at larger planetary scales. However, the smallest craters that form on planetary surfaces are greatly affected by the local topography and cannot be understood by looking at experiments into flat targets. Dr. Anderson and her undergraduate research group are working to better understand experimental targets that are more realistic to what we see at small scales on the Moon and asteroids: layered targets and sloped targets. My research focuses on the experiments into sloped targets. At the NASA Johnson Space Center Experimental Impact Laboratory, the Vertical Impact Facility was used for our sloped-target experiments. You can think of the Vertical Impact Facility as a standard powder gun that is pointed directly downward and fires a 4.76-mm-aluminum sphere into targets consisting of 0.4-0.8 mm rounded, sieved sand at speeds of 1.5 km/s (3400 mph) for these experiments. The targets had slopes of 0°, 5°, 10°, 15°, and 20° above horizontal. A NextEngine 3D Laser Scanner was used to scan the targets before and after impact. I then used CloudCompare, a software program that processes point cloud data, to generate topographic maps of the experiments based on the three-dimensional scans. With CloudCompare, I drew eight transects through the center of each crater and then processed these data using Excel. I created cross-sections and measured the craters' dimensions. The measurements, topographic profiles, and topographic maps of the final experimental craters can then be compared to our control crater into the horizontal target (0°) as well as observations of craters into sloped surfaces on the Moon and asteroids.
College
College of Science & Engineering
Department
Geoscience
Campus
Winona
First Advisor/Mentor
Jennifer Anderson
Location
Ballroom - Kryzsko Commons
Start Date
4-18-2024 1:00 PM
End Date
4-18-2024 2:00 PM
Presentation Type
Poster Session
Format of Presentation or Performance
In-Person
Session
2a=1pm-2pm
Poster Number
29
Included in
Experimental Impact Craters into Sloped Targets
Ballroom - Kryzsko Commons
Impact cratering is a process that shapes every planetary body in our solar system, including the Earth. On smaller planetary objects without atmospheres like the Moon and asteroids (e.g. Vesta and Ceres), impact cratering creates a rough surface with varying topography as opposed to a flat, horizontal surface. In general, impact cratering experiments are performed into flat targets to simplify the physics and model craters at larger planetary scales. However, the smallest craters that form on planetary surfaces are greatly affected by the local topography and cannot be understood by looking at experiments into flat targets. Dr. Anderson and her undergraduate research group are working to better understand experimental targets that are more realistic to what we see at small scales on the Moon and asteroids: layered targets and sloped targets. My research focuses on the experiments into sloped targets. At the NASA Johnson Space Center Experimental Impact Laboratory, the Vertical Impact Facility was used for our sloped-target experiments. You can think of the Vertical Impact Facility as a standard powder gun that is pointed directly downward and fires a 4.76-mm-aluminum sphere into targets consisting of 0.4-0.8 mm rounded, sieved sand at speeds of 1.5 km/s (3400 mph) for these experiments. The targets had slopes of 0°, 5°, 10°, 15°, and 20° above horizontal. A NextEngine 3D Laser Scanner was used to scan the targets before and after impact. I then used CloudCompare, a software program that processes point cloud data, to generate topographic maps of the experiments based on the three-dimensional scans. With CloudCompare, I drew eight transects through the center of each crater and then processed these data using Excel. I created cross-sections and measured the craters' dimensions. The measurements, topographic profiles, and topographic maps of the final experimental craters can then be compared to our control crater into the horizontal target (0°) as well as observations of craters into sloped surfaces on the Moon and asteroids.
