Complex-structured 3D-printed wireframes as asteroid analogues for tomographic microwave radar measurements
Résumé
This study introduces a fused filament fabrication (FFF) process for manufacturing complex-structured asteroid
analogue objects to be applied in tomographic microwave radar measurements and inversion studies. We describe
an approach to control the volume fraction of the plastic and, thereby, the effective relative permittivity
within a tetrahedral wireframe which serves as metamaterial representing the actual asteroid composition. To
determine the effective permittivity of the plastic–air mixture, we use an exponential model. In this study, two
analogue objects based on the shape of the asteroids 1998 KY26 and (25143) Itokawa were 3D-printed in a
scale suitable for microwave laboratory measurements using ABS filament with a controlled constant relative
electric permittivity. The results obtained suggest that the permittivity of solid and powdery asteroid minerals
can be modelled with the proposed technique and, in particular, that the numerical structural permittivity
models of the earlier numerical studies can be approximated by 3D-printed analogues.
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