Experiments on dust aggregation and their relevance to space missions Original Research Article

Dust Aggregation is generally accepted as the physical mechanism to form both planetesimals and come-tesimals. There have been numerous and diverse experimental approaches to the problem of dust aggregation. We point out that this work is relevant to space misssions because of three main reasons: (1) An experimental technique allows to simulate conditions on and around small celestial bodies in the laboratory. (2) Research on the formation process of primitive bodies allows to put constraints on their inner structure, and the study of porous particle layers and fractal aggregates helps to understand regolith properties. (3) Supporting research on pre-planetary dust aggregation helps to develope new applications and instruments for future space missions.