The Dusty Plasma Laboratory is located in the Space Plasma Physics Group of the Science Directorate SD50 presently located at NASA Marshall Space Flight Center. The facility has 740 square feet of floor space and 13 feet of permanent bench-top work space. Water, missle grade air, and 220V/110V power distribution is made along opposite long walls. Power distribution is also available in the middle of the facility from an overhead rail running most of its length. Bottled N2 is used for cooling and chamber purging. Three vacuum chambers are installed in the facility. The primary chamber for dusty plasma development is approximately 5 foot diameter by 30 inch high cylindrical chamber and 20 inch diameter by 54 inch length chamber are also available to support the proposed technology effort. The smaller chamber is now being adapted for dual use as a thermal vacuum system. Excellent access and cable porting is available on all chambers. Office space for associated personnel is adjacent to the facility.
At Auburn University, Prof. Thomas maintains an active laboratory for the experimental study of dusty plasmas located in the Leach Science Center. A support staff of an administrative assistant, technical typist and bookkeeper serves both faculty and students by performing a myriad of administrative tasks. Two instrument makers in the Instrument Shop construct precision instruments from drawings and assist students in the Student Machine Shop. The laboratory currently includes a 50 cm long, 10 cm diameter vacuum vessel which is used to produce argon dc glow discharge dust plasmas (DPX). The primary dusty plasma diagnostics include a helium-neon laser for basic particle illumination studies and a particle image velocimetry (PIV) system for characterizing dust particle transport. The laboratory has an inventory of several sizes (ranging from 1 micron diameter to 40 micron diameter) of silica dust particles.