Gas Investigations In Space Research

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31598, 8 February 1968, Page 5

Gas Investigations In Space Research

A quadrupole mass spectrometer for the study of flame reactions and gas fragments, similar to those which occur in the upper atmosphere, will be built at the University of Canterbury by Dr M. J. McEwan, a lecturer in physical chemistry.

“This is a versatile but inexpensive instrument and so robust that it has been used in rockets,” he ■ said on his return from the Centre for Research in Experimental Space Science at York University, Toronto, where he was engaged in similar work during the university vacation. Dr McEwan was a research associate at the centre two years ago after completing his doctorate in Canterbury. At that time he built equipment with a large vacuum pump, very wide diameter tubing, and a quadrupole mass spectrometer to act as a “filter” of molecules in gas flows which were measured by very complex metering equipment He returned in December to complete a project with his former research group. Earlier the group studied the reactions of hydrogen ions, particularly an ion molecule called H3+. Recently it measured a large number of reaction rates with other molecules and the energy of H3+. This could have considerable significance in the upperatmosphere aspects of space research. Dr McEwan said.

He' was keen to ascertain whether water droplets in the upper atmosphere might have ions like H3+ attached to them. Differences in the formation of thermal energies of H3+ had still to be determined.

Dr McEwan said the Toronto group, one In Boulder, Colorado, and another recently formed elsewhere in the United States were the only ones working on these problems. The Boulder group had “dream” equipment with an automatic scanner for variables linked directly to a computer. All the operators had to do was adjust the flow of gases. The technique was so successful in determining ion molecule reactions that it was now used in 90 per cent of

all this research, yet it was discovered only three years ago. Dr McEwan said that with his new equipment and work already in progress by Professor L. F. Phillips, Canterbury would be able to make a contribution in this field of research.

In latest teaching, Dr McEwan found York University interesting because physics, chemistry, and mathematics were no longer taken as separate subjects. Instead, they were combined in an integrated course called “science 101.” These students had a degree of specialisation at undergraduate level for which Canada offered considerable scope.

For New Zealand at present the conventional teaching was probably still the most useful, he said.