NanoRocks: Experimental Study of Collisional Damping and Aggregation at Low Velocities

The NanoRocks experiment on the International Space Station consists of 8 separate sample trays of particles from ~0.1 mm - 2.0 mm in diameter that undergo collisional evolution. The microgravity environment of the ISS allows collision speeds of less than 1 mm/s to be studied. At these speeds the experiment reproduces the velocity dispersion found in unperturbed regions of Saturn’s rings. Observations of the rings from Cassini instruments hint at aggregation and fragmentation of clumps depending on the local surface mass density, particle size distribution and velocity dispersion.The eight NanoRocks samples include plastic beads, copper, glass, and JSC-1 lunar regolith simulant. The samples are shaken at 1 minute intervals to provide initial collision velocities of a few cm/s, and video is recorded of the collisional evolution of the particle samples. We derive mean coefficients of restitution for the different samples based on the damping of the mean velocity dispersion as well as tracking of individual particle trajectories. The evolution of the velocity distribution is consistent with a uniform random distribution of the coefficient of restitution, independent of collision velocity. This is consistent with results of Heißelmann et al. (Icarus Vol. 206, pp. 424-430, 2010) using larger icy particles. We also find the onset of cluster formation at speeds of a few mm/s. We will present our results and discuss applications to models of the collisional evolution of Saturn’s rings.