Microgravity

Lunar Orbiter 2 oblique northward view towards Copernicus crater on the Moon shows crater wall slumping caused by soil liquefaction following the impact that formed the crater. The crater is about 100 km in diameter. The central peaks are visible towards the top of the image, rising about 400 m above the crater floor, and stretching for about 15 km. The northern wall of the crater is in the background. Sand and soil grains have faces that can cause friction as they roll and slide against each other, or even cause sticking and form small voids between grains. This complex behavior can cause soil to behave like a liquid under certain conditions such as earthquakes or when powders are handled in industrial processes. MGM experiments aboard the Space Shuttle use the microgravity of space to simulate this behavior under conditions that carnot be achieved in laboratory tests on Earth. MGM is shedding light on the behavior of fine-grain materials under low effective stresses. Applications include earthquake engineering, granular flow technologies (such as powder feed systems for pharmaceuticals and fertilizers), and terrestrial and planetary geology. Nine MGM specimens have flown on two Space Shuttle flights. Another three are scheduled to fly on STS-107. The principal investigator is Stein Sture of the University of Colorado at Boulder. (Credit: University of Colorado at Boulder).