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P: Fachverband Plasmaphysik

P 10: Invited talks III

P 10.2: Invited Talk

Wednesday, March 30, 2022, 11:30–12:00, P-H11

COMPACT - A new complex plasma facility for the ISS — •Christina A. Knapek — Institute of Physics, University Greifswald, Greifswald, Germany

Complex plasma is a state of soft matter where micrometer-sized particles are immersed in a weakly ionized gas. The particles acquire negative charges of the order of several thousand elementary charges in the plasma, and they can form gaseous, liquid and crystalline states. Direct optical observation of individual particles allows to study their dynamics on the kinetic level even in large many-particle systems. Gravity restricts the research on ground to vertically compressed, inhomogeneous clouds, or two-dimensional systems. A microgravity environment, e.g. the International Space Station (ISS), is therefore essential to study large and homogeneous 3D many-particle systems. The complex plasma facility COMPACT to be operated onboard the ISS builds upon previous studies and hardware developments (PlasmaLab, Ekoplasma) and is envisaged as an international multi-purpose and multi-user facility that gives access to the full three-dimensional kinetic properties of the particles. The heart of COMPACT will be a novel plasma chamber: the Zyflex chamber. It includes a variety of innovations that allow to tune, control and manipulate plasma-particle and particle-particle interaction in various ways. We will present the overall design and research goals of COMPACT, with special focus on the characteristics of the new plasma chamber, supported by plasma simulations and results of experiments performed on ground and during parabolic flights.