Research on Sealing Structure and Ground Test of Lunar Sample Return Devices

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bin Zhang ◽  
Min Yu ◽  
Huayong Yang ◽  
Haocen Hong
Keyword(s):  
High Vacuum ◽  
Extreme Temperature ◽  
Leak Detection ◽  
Ultra High Vacuum ◽  
Knife Edge ◽  
Lunar Sample ◽  
Test Environment ◽  
Sample Return ◽  
Rubber Ring ◽  
Advantages And Disadvantages

This article is in the background of lunar exploration program, which requires unmanned operation in the environment of ultra high vacuum, extreme temperature, strong radiation and lunar dust. Seal reliability of lunar sample return devices should be guaranteed as well. Principal prototype devices of explosive welding seal and brazing seal are analyzed separately when applied to lunar program, both of their advantages and disadvantages are indicated, and improved schemes are given as well. Besides, a redundant seal combined with o type rubber ring and knife edge indium alloy is put forward, to validate its reliability, a mathematical model based on Roth theory has been developed to describe sealing mechanism and predict the variable leakage, and the ground tests on leak detection for rubber seal and knife edge seal have been set up separately through helium mass spectrometer. According to the test results, nitrile rubber is proved to be better because of its resilience in alternative temperature, lower leakage and permeation. The knife edge indium seal has lower leak rate, and the welding joint quality of indium alloy itself can be guaranteed as well. The redundant seal is considered to have preliminary feasibility while the test environment for leak detection is required to simulate lunar surface still further.

Leakage analysis and ground tests of knife edge indium seal to lunar sample return devices

2018 ◽  
Vol 233 (6) ◽  
pp. 2010-2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bin Zhang ◽  
Haocen Hong ◽  
Min Yu ◽  
Huayong Yang
Keyword(s):  
Leak Rate ◽  
Knife Edge ◽  
Lunar Sample ◽  
Element Analysis ◽  
Sample Return ◽  
Pressing Force ◽  
Sealing Performance ◽  
Lunar Samples ◽  
Ring Seal ◽  
Key Techniques

This work deals with the lunar sample return project, which requires lunar samples to be returned back to the ground without contamination. In this paper, a knife edge indium seal is proposed as a primary sealing form, where indium–silver alloy is welded into an annular groove of a cylindrical container firstly and then extruded by an annular knife edge of a cylindrical lid. The analysis of the leakage and sealing reliability of knife edge indium seal is the main aim of this paper. Firstly, the pretreatment of knife edge indium seal is discussed. Key techniques on indium welding are studied to evaluate its sealing reliability, with the tensile strength and welding void ratio mainly being discussed. Secondly, by means of “Roth” leakage theory, mathematical models on the leak rate for knife edge seal are established. By means of the finite element analysis, the knife edge geometry is optimized with minimum pressing force required. The results justify that the knife edge seal demands much lower pressing force to achieve a considerable sealing performance, which is suitable for low-powered operation. Finally, the ground tests are carried out to evaluate the feasibility of the indium welding and to measure the leak rate of the knife edge indium seal. Experimental results demonstrate the indium welding onto the stainless steel container is feasible, and the leak rate at room temperature is 3.0 × 10−10 Pa·m3/s, which is much lower than the rubber O-type ring seal. The knife edge indium seal is suitable for lunar sample return devices.

Thin Pyrolytic Graphite Films for Electron Microscope Substrates

1971 ◽  
Vol 29 ◽  
pp. 226-227 ◽  
Author(s):  
George H. N. Riddle ◽  
Benjamin M. Siegel
Keyword(s):  
Vacuum Chamber ◽  
Pyrolytic Graphite ◽  
High Vacuum ◽  
Dark Field ◽  
Ultra High Vacuum ◽  
Graphite Substrate ◽  
Nickel Substrate ◽  
Routine Procedure ◽  
Field Electron Microscopy ◽  
Dark Field Electron

A routine procedure for growing very thin graphite substrate films has been developed. The films are grown pyrolytically in an ultra-high vacuum chamber by exposing (111) epitaxial nickel films to carbon monoxide gas. The nickel serves as a catalyst for the disproportionation of CO through the reaction 2C0 → C + CO2. The nickel catalyst is prepared by evaporation onto artificial mica at 400°C and annealing for 1/2 hour at 600°C in vacuum. Exposure of the annealed nickel to 1 torr CO for 3 hours at 500°C results in the growth of very thin continuous graphite films. The graphite is stripped from its nickel substrate in acid and mounted on holey formvar support films for use as specimen substrates.The graphite films, self-supporting over formvar holes up to five microns in diameter, have been studied by bright and dark field electron microscopy, by electron diffraction, and have been shadowed to reveal their topography and thickness. The films consist of individual crystallites typically a micron across with their basal planes parallel to the surface but oriented in different, apparently random directions about the normal to the basal plane.

A High Voltage Electron Microscopy Study of Sub-Oxide Formation in Vanadium

1971 ◽  
Vol 29 ◽  
pp. 212-213
Author(s):  
R. H. Geiss ◽  
R. L. Ladd ◽  
K. R. Lawless
Keyword(s):  
High Vacuum ◽  
Microscopy Study ◽  
Electron Microscopy Study ◽  
Ultra High Vacuum ◽  
Pure Oxygen ◽  
Pressure Oxidation ◽  
High Voltage Electron Microscopy ◽  
Oxidation Study ◽  
Voltage Electron ◽  
Good Agreement

Detailed electron microscope and diffraction studies of the sub-oxides of vanadium have been reported by Cambini and co-workers, and an oxidation study, possibly complicated by carbon and/or nitrogen, has been published by Edington and Smallman. The results reported by these different authors are not in good agreement. For this study, high purity polycrystalline vanadium samples were electrochemically thinned in a dual jet polisher using a solution of 20% H2SO4, 80% CH3OH, and then oxidized in an ion-pumped ultra-high vacuum reactor system using spectroscopically pure oxygen. Samples were oxidized at 350°C and 100μ oxygen pressure for periods of 30,60,90 and 160 minutes. Since our primary interest is in the mechanism of the low pressure oxidation process, the oxidized samples were cooled rapidly and not homogenized. The specimens were then examined in the HVEM at voltages up to 500 kV, the higher voltages being necessary to examine thick sections for which the oxidation behavior was more characteristic of the bulk.

The High Resolution Scanning Transmission Electron Microscope

1974 ◽  
Vol 32 ◽  
pp. 316-317
Author(s):  
A. V. Crewe
Keyword(s):  
Electron Microscope ◽  
High Resolution ◽  
High Vacuum ◽  
Scanning Transmission Electron Microscope ◽  
Ultra High Vacuum ◽  
Resolving Power ◽  
Imaging Characteristics ◽  
Transmission Electron ◽  
Scanning Transmission ◽  
The Moment

The high resolution STEM is now a fact of life. I think that we have, in the last few years, demonstrated that this instrument is capable of the same resolving power as a CEM but is sufficiently different in its imaging characteristics to offer some real advantages.It seems possible to prove in a quite general way that only a field emission source can give adequate intensity for the highest resolution^ and at the moment this means operating at ultra high vacuum levels. Our experience, however, is that neither the source nor the vacuum are difficult to manage and indeed are simpler than many other systems and substantially trouble-free.

Structure of Palladium Single-Crystal Films Prepared by Flash Evaporation onto (001) NaCl Substrates

1970 ◽  
Vol 28 ◽  
pp. 456-457
Author(s):  
L. E. Murr ◽  
G. Wong
Keyword(s):  
Single Crystal ◽  
High Vacuum ◽  
Ultra High Vacuum ◽  
High Rate ◽  
Flash Evaporation ◽  
Optimum Load ◽  
Single Crystal Films ◽  
Crystal Films ◽  
A Current

Palladium single-crystal films have been prepared by Matthews in ultra-high vacuum by evaporation onto (001) NaCl substrates cleaved in-situ, and maintained at ∼ 350° C. Murr has also produced large-grained and single-crystal Pd films by high-rate evaporation onto (001) NaCl air-cleaved substrates at 350°C. In the present work, very large (∼ 3cm2), continuous single-crystal films of Pd have been prepared by flash evaporation onto air-cleaved (001) NaCl substrates at temperatures at or below 250°C. Evaporation rates estimated to be ≧ 2000 Å/sec, were obtained by effectively short-circuiting 1 mil tungsten evaporation boats in a self-regulating system which maintained an optimum load current of approximately 90 amperes; corresponding to a current density through the boat of ∼ 4 × 104 amperes/cm2.

A Field Emission System For Transmission Electron Microscopy

1973 ◽  
Vol 31 ◽  
pp. 298-299
Author(s):  
Michel Troyonal ◽  
Huei Pei Kuoal ◽  
Benjamin M. Siegelal
Keyword(s):  
Electron Microscope ◽  
Field Emission ◽  
Optical System ◽  
High Vacuum ◽  
Ultra High Vacuum ◽  
Objective Lens ◽  
Electron Optical System ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Transmission Electron ◽  
Emission System

A field emission system for our experimental ultra high vacuum electron microscope has been designed, constructed and tested. The electron optical system is based on the prototype whose performance has already been reported. A cross-sectional schematic illustrating the field emission source, preaccelerator lens and accelerator is given in Fig. 1. This field emission system is designed to be used with an electron microscope operated at 100-150kV in the conventional transmission mode. The electron optical system used to control the imaging of the field emission beam on the specimen consists of a weak condenser lens and the pre-field of a strong objective lens. The pre-accelerator lens is an einzel lens and is operated together with the accelerator in the constant angular magnification mode (CAM).

Hetero-Epitaxy of Group Va Metals on Sapphire

1972 ◽  
Vol 30 ◽  
pp. 492-493
Author(s):  
J. E. O'Neal ◽  
J. J. Bellina ◽  
B. B. Rath
Keyword(s):  
Thermal Contact ◽  
High Vacuum ◽  
Electron Beam Evaporation ◽  
Ultra High Vacuum ◽  
Backing Plate ◽  
Sapphire Substrates ◽  
Deposition Parameters ◽  
Polishing Damage ◽  
Reflection Electron Diffraction

Thin films of the bcc metals vanadium, niobium and tantalum were epitaxially grown on (0001) and sapphire substrates. Prior to deposition, the mechanical polishing damage on the substrates was removed by an in-situ etch. The metal films were deposited by electron-beam evaporation in ultra-high vacuum. The substrates were heated by thermal contact with an electron-bombarded backing plate. The deposition parameters are summarized in Table 1.The films were replicated and examined by electron microscopy and their crystallographic orientation and texture were determined by reflection electron diffraction. Verneuil-grown and Czochralskigrown sapphire substrates of both orientations were employed for each evaporation. The orientation of the metal deposit was not affected by either increasing the density of sub-grain boundaries by about a factor of ten or decreasing the deposition rate by a factor of two. The results on growth epitaxy are summarized in Tables 2 and 3.

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