Official News page 9

REAL LIFE NEWS: SMART DUST WILL WARN US OF SPACE STORMS

by Hazed

Last week I raised the alarm about solar storms causing problems for sat-nav (see http://www.ibgames.net/fednews/100214/official07.html). One of the things that we need is advance warning of when these storms are on their way, and a new plan to send a swarm of "smart dust" spacecraft into space, positioned between the Earth and the sun, could give us that warning.

Engineers from Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, have designed a 1-centimeter square spacecraft that is just 25 micrometers thick and weighs less than 7.5 milligrams. The mini-craft has been modelled on the dust particles that orbit the sun and are propelled by the photos streaming out from it.

Normal-sized spacecraft are not affected by the pressure from solar radiation but at the millimetre-scale it is significant. These tiny spacecrafts will deflect incoming photons in such a way as to ensure they always face the sun. They could then act as a solar wind detector. Essentially, the chips are little solar panels with a radio antenna.

The team plan to send a whole swarm of these "smart dust" chips to the Lagrange point - a point between the Earth and the sun where the gravity of the two bodies cancels each other out, so that a small object can stay stationary there. They could be transported there by hitching a ride on the back of another mission to the Lagrange point. The chips would then monitor the strength of the solar wind and warn of any oncoming gusts of charged particles.

The first prototypes are due to launched into low-Earth orbit this year, perhaps as early as May. Should the tests prove successful, the idea could be developed further, and the whole "spaceship on a chip" idea has many other applications.

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