Alice Maria Piccirillo

About

I’m a PhD student at Parthenope University of Naples and Institute of Astrophysics and Planetary Science (Rome).

I got a Master of Science in Space Engineer at Polytechnic of Milan, and Bachelor of Science in Aerospace Engineer at “University of Naples Federico II”.

I will be visiting Kent to work with Dr Penny Wozniakiewicz for 6 months between November 2021 and May 2022.

Research interests

Thesis title: Activities in support of the development of DISC, part of the payload of Comet Interceptor/ESA space mission, designed to characterize the cometary dust environment.

Description: DISC is devoted to the characterization of cometary dust, in particular, to analyse the physical properties of individual particles ejected by the targeted comet nucleus. The goal of my research is to investigate the hypervelocity impacts characteristics and the consequential response of DISC, in support of sensor calibration and performance characterization.

The obtained results will be useful in the context of space/craft “safety", regarding the effects of high-speed dust particles impacts. The investigation is conducted through numerical simulation involving ANSYS and AUTODYN platform, which will be validated with tests involving the Light Gas Gun.