Dr. Julie Brisset, an Associate Scientist at the Florida Space Institute, was recently awarded a NASA grant to study man-made dust clouds in microgravity. The Dust In-Situ Manipulation System (DIMS) is a platform that can conduct controlled experiments on dust grains; ultimately providing insight on how dust grain material properties, sizes, and shapes affect how they are detected from Earth. This can also have implications for understanding how dust behavior may have had a role in the formation and evolution of the Solar System. Dr. Brisset, who has expertise in developing hardware and conducting experiments in microgravity, will partner with spaceflight services company Blue Origin to test DIMS. While Earth-based laboratory set-ups can create microgravity conditions on the order of a few seconds, Blue Origin flights can create microgravity conditions on the order of a few minutes, significantly expanding the number of experiments that is capable with DIMS. Read more about Dr. Brisset and DIMS at UCF Today.
