Advance Aerosol Separator for Planetary Exploration

IDSrsquo; NanoJet printing technology uses a uniquersquo; patented method to focus liquid-based aerosol particles to print electronic features.nbsp; The sheath gas used for focusing provides a gas buffer to prevent the liquid particles from impacting and adhering to the internal surfaces of the NanoJet technology.nbsp; The transmission efficiency for the NanoJet technology is nearly 100%.nbsp; In the Phase I project IDS demonstrated that this same technology works for atmospheric sampling of small liquid-based aerosol droplets (0.3-5micro;m).nbsp; During the Phase I project, IDS was able to develop and validate computation fluid dynamic (CFD) models to accurately predict the behavior of the aerosol particles passing through the aerosol separation device.nbsp; These CFD tools will be used for design work in the Phase II project.nbsp; Using particle densities needed for printing, IDS was able to correlate the particle density on Venus to an expected operational lifetime of the aerosol separator operating on Venus.nbsp; The operational lifetime is predicted to exceed a 1-year operation by more than two orders of magnitude based on calculations.nbsp; This is a result of the near 100% transmission efficiency of the NanoJet particle concentration technology.nbsp; IDS demonstrated experimentally that the NanoJet technology would operate well in a vacuum environment to below 0.1 Bar pressure.nbsp; It is expected that the aerosol separator will operate continuously over a wide range of pressures. The Phase II project will extend the Phase I work to produce a ruggedized, space compatible aerosol separator than can perform well on a mission to Venus and for other atmospheric sampling applications.nbsp; The Phase II project will test the limits of the new aerosol separator and focus on simplifying the operation of the separator to reduce risk associated with a complex assembly.nbsp; IDS will have a dedicated test platform for testing purposes. Continuous testing of advancements will ensure that each design iteration is robust.nbsp; nbsp;nbsp;