Granular gases are assemblies of mesoscopic particles that can be distributed randomly for extended amounts of time at low density only in microgravity. To investigate that topic , at Bremen drop tower the first joint campaign took place during 11th-22nd January 2016 involving German and Chinese scientists. In a collaboration between the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Beijing, and the German Aerospace Center (DLR), Cologne, the behavior of granular gases under vibration was investigated.
Granular gases are characterized by the loss of energy during collisions between the particles among each other. This lost energy needs to be replaced by the experiment in order to measure for an extended amount of time. Here, the Chinese experience with mechanical vibration could be combined with the German results on magnetic excitation. The data from the drop tower are used for a comparison of the two types of excitation, as well as a test of parameters for the preparation of similar experiments on the Chinese satellite mission SJ-10.