Stratospheric Sampler

For my final year project at University, I developed a stratospheric sampler prototype designed to collect interplanetary dust and microplastics particle samples from the payload bay of an ultra lightweight stratospheric aircraft.

In a nutshell, previous methods of collecting interplanetary dust particles involve large filtration systems, or damaged collected particles - and were always a pain for researchers to use in the lab.

My novel idea was to use a cyclonic separator to passively collect these particles - reducing system size, weight and energy requirements as well as damage to collected samples.

The system can also be used to sample the concentration of microplastics in the stratosphere.

A unique rotating cartridge system is used to partition the collected material into distinct, sealed, contaminant-free capsules that can be quickly removed and interface easily with a range of laboratory equipment - eliminating the typically painful aspects of analysis and adding temporal control to the collection of material.

Some challenges involved:

• a completely plastic & organic material free design to eliminate potential contamination.

• quickly assessing the aerodynamic feasibility of different cyclone shapes and the overall concept - here I used mathematical formulas for cyclone design from research publications and excel macros to find feasible cyclone geometries within a short time frame.

This project also involved wind tunnel testing, fluid dynamics simulations and design for ease of use, as well as fostering cooperation between the Product Design, Physics and Astronomy and Engineering departments at the University of Canterbury and NASA researchers based in Hawaii.

The project is continuing thanks to a post-doc research grant.