Nanophabibalic mesosphere enables atmospheric sensor

The Earth’s atmosphere is large, which is about 10,000 kilometers from the planet’s surface. It is so large, in fact, scientists have broken it into five different classes. There is a special section that has not received complete attention due to difficulty in maintaining any craft.

Plane and balloons can visit troposphere and stratosphere, two sections closest to the ground, while satellites can sit in the thermosphere and orbital in the orbit, allowing for a platform for frequent comments. But the mesosphere, in the middle, is close to a stable orbit, but is very sparse in the density of air for traditional airplanes or balloons to work.

As a result, we do not have much data on it, but it affects climate and weather forecast, so scientists just have to make a lot of perceptions about what it is there. Now, a new study from researchers Harvard And this University of chicago Maybe a way is found Put a steady sensing platform In Mesosphere, a novel is known using flight mechanisms Illustration,

The mesosphere itself is located 50 and 85 km above, and while it is not technically considered “space”, it is very different from the lower levels of the atmosphere that we are more accustomed to. It is affected by the weather down and from top, which often reacts to solar storms as a storm. Since it acts as that type of interface level, it plays an important role as to how both layers above and bottom.

But we have not been able to install any stable monitoring equipment in it due to difficulty for two types of continuous monitoring systems – we have – Balan and satellites. It has given the monkey “Ignorance“Because scientists have been forced to inevitably ignore the existence of this layer of the environment due to lack of data.

Photophoresis is a new atmospheric sensor

enter the New paperPublished on August 13 Nature, About long -term sensors in Mesosphere. Photophoresis is a process where more energy is made when the gas molecules bounce the “hot” side of an object compared to its “cool” side. In this case, the warm side is the side of the object facing the sun, while the cool side is the Egg -to -Egg -failure of the Earth. The effect is only noticeable in low pressure environment, which is actually mesosphere.

Of course, the force from photoforesis is minuscule, so the researchers had to actually develop small portions to give any chance to take advantage of it. He recruited experts in nanopabication techniques and tested them in a vacuum chamber to create centimeters-scale structures as evidence of concept.

Prototypes reacted expected and managed to increase a structure with just 55 percent of sunlight under pressure compared to the mesosphere. It marks a previously that one has ever demonstrated a functional prototype of a photoforesis-powered flight, how light the light was mainly about the structure.

The devices driven by this technique can be sent to monitor the mesosphere, but they can also be useful away. Mars is a clear candidate, as its low pressure and sparse environment are hallmarks of the planet, but also have large-scale unexplained in different layers. Other planets and moon can also be possible goals – anything is an environment that is sufficient to support a levitating spacecraft, one of which can be served by a flyer.

Unfortunately, some advanced engineering is still yet to be done. The nanopabication technique used for the construction of flight structure included no functional hardware, such as sensors or wireless communication equipment. A structure that simply swims without transmitting data is not scientifically useful, so they expect to start the type of scientific impact for these devices, nanofabrication techniques will need to improve to create a functional payload.

Researchers have no doubt that this is possible, however, and has already formed a startup company Rare technologiesWhich was accepted in the Breakthrough Energy Fellow program last year. With that support, and some ongoing research in nanofabrication, hopefully it will be only a matter of time, before we will see the centimeter-shaped sensor “ignorant” and beyond that.