A Consortium status report: the characterisation of the asteroid Itokawa regolith - a correlated study by X-ray tomography, micro-raman spectroscopy, and high-sensitivity noble gas analysis

Precious samples from S-type as-teroid 25143 Itokawa have been sampled by the JAXA (Japanese Space Agency) Hayabusa mission in 2005 and returned to Earth in 2010. Itokawa is, succeeding the Moon and comet Wild 2, the third planetary body successfully probed by a sample return mission. The initial studies revealed that Itokawa consists mostly of type LL5-6 material. It experienced severe surface alteration due to space weathering, as docu-mented by surficial, nanosize S-and Fe-bearing phases in some grains. Noble gas studies indicate that Itokawa experiences a surprisingly intense surface loss at a rate of tens of cm/Ma, implying that Itokawa (largest dimension ~540 m) will be destroyed quickly. We received material through JAXA in Sept. 2012 and aim to analyze noble gases in Itokawa samples with high sensitivity, including Kr and Xe, which could not be studied previously, because of the low concentrations. We will combine the noble gas studies with scanning microRaman spectroscopy, Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), and synchro-tron radiation X-ray tomographic microscopy (SRXTM). These provide non-destructive characteri-zations of grain density, mineralogy, structure, and potential space weathering, which are essential to as-sess gas concentrations of potentially present cosmogenic, solar, trapped and radiogenic compo-nents. Here, we summarize the work of our consortium performed so far. Further studies will be presented at the meeting

The mass, morphology, and internal structures of three particles from the HAYABUSA sample return mission, analyzed with Synchrotron radiation X-ray tomographic microscopy.

The Hayabusa sample return mission, launched in 2003 by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), was the first ever space mission to sample material from an asteroid: the S-type, near-Earth asteroid (25143) Itokawa. More than 1500 particles, varying in size from <1 μm to 180 μm, were recovered from the uppermost regolith layer of the asteroid. The main aim of this study is to determine a precise mass for three of these particles. The mass will then be used in a forthcoming study where the concentration of solar wind derived, trapped, and cosmogenic noble gases of the individual particles will be measured. Due to the small particle size (75-145 μm), a normal weighing procedure on a micro- balance would result in large errors (up to 100%) in the mass and thus also in the noble gas concentrations, as well as the cosmic-ray-exposure (CRE) ages derived from cosmogenic noble gases. A precise mass, combined with the detection limit of the noble gas spectrometer used, allows the determination of the minimum cosmic-ray-exposure age that could still be resolved. The mass is measured by determining the volume of the constituent mineral phases (with known densities), using synchrotron radiation X-ray tomographic microscopy (SRXTM). This also allows non-destructive studies of the morphology and internal structure of the particles. While Hayabusa particles have been studied with SRXTM before, none of the particles from this study have so far been analyzed

Long wavelength response of unstressed and stressed Ge:Ga detectors

Photoconductivity spectra of unstressed and stressed Ge:Ga detectors were measured. The ecperiments were performed with a polarizing step scan Fourier transform spectrometer using the synchrotron facility BESSY, which was operated in a dedicated mode with a low momentum compaction factor. By this way powerful and coherent synchrotron radiation below 5o cm-1 was generated. We observed a significant response of unstressed and stressed Ge:Ga detectors below 5o cm-1 and 25 cm-1, respectively. This response can be attributed to transitions between bound excited states or from bound excited states to the valence band. The results indicate that in germanium detectors a fraction of the recombining holes is captured into bound excited states

Sub-terahertz response of stressed and unstressed Ge:Ga photoconductive detectors

Ge:Ga is a widely used detector material for applications at terahertz frequencies. Its response ranges from about 40 µm - 120 µm. If a compressive force is applied to the crystal the response shifts to about 100 µm - 240 µm. We report on a long wavelength, sub-terahertz response &gt; 300 µm. This response can be attributed to transitions from excited Ga states into the valence band. The results indicated that a cascade type of relaxation exists in Ge:Ga at 4.5 K

Raman spectroscopy of HAYABUSA particle RA-QD02-0051

Raman microscopy measurements are performed on Hayabusa sample RA-QD02-0051, provided by JAXA to our consortium in the scope of the 1st International Announcement of Opportunity. Raman microscopy is applied to identify the mineral phases of the particle. The interpretation of the spectra shows that the sample consists of olivine, pyroxene and feldspar

NATO MSG-048 Coalition Battle Management Initial Demonstration Lessons Learned and Way Forward

The NATO Modeling and Simulation Group Technical Activity 48 (MSG-048) was chartered in 2006 to investigate the potential of a Coalition Battle Management Language for multinational and NATO interoperation of command and control systems with modeling and simulation. In its May, 2007 meeting, MSG-048 decided to undertake as its first technical project a multinational demonstration, using the US Joint Battle Management Language (JBML) phase 1 prototype Web services as central infrastructure. The demonstration was presented at the I/ITSEC'07 and consisted of three different operational national C2 systems interoperating with three different national simulations, supported by the JBML Web services and an open source C2 visualizer from the US, and the C2 Lexical GUI from Germany. In all, eight software systems from six nations successfully interoperated. This capability was achieved in only six months, based on use of an Internet Reference Implementation that all parties could use to test from their home laboratories, along with a high level of cooperation among technical personnel and military subject matter experts from all participating nations. This paper will provide an overview of the interoperation technology and component systems used in the MSG-048 initial demonstration, describe the lessons learned in the process of creating the demonstration, and summarize the way ahead for the work of MSG-048, including its support for validation of the products of SISO's C-BML Product Group