DEVELOPMENT OF ON-BOARD COSMIC DUST DETECTOR

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The main purpose of this research is to develop the cosmic dust counter MDC (Mars Dust Counter) on-board of ISAS (Institute of Space and Astronautical Science) PLANET-B to be launched July 1998. This MDC-PB is a direct successor of the MDC (Munich Dust Counter) on-board of Technical Experimental Satellite HITEN (Muses-B) launched January 1990. MDC-HITEN got several scientific results during its three years of mission life. The main weak point of this MDC-HITEN was its low angular resolution of 145 degrees. This grant-in-aid was aimed to improve the angular resolution. In the initial phase of the PLANET-B project, mass of the MDC-PB was restricted to 500g. During the prototype model and engineering model construction, this mass limit was increased up to 730g, that we have added the third neutral channel in addition to original electron and ion channels. Improvement of angular resolution and signal to noise ratio was confirmed by the calibration experiment using an Van-de-Graaf electrost … More atic dust accelerator at the Max-Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics, Heidelberg Germany. For this MDC-PB project, Japanese scientists have participated in the design, construction and calibration experiment from its earliest stage. Prof. Sasaki at University of Tokyo was nominated as PI (Principal Investigator) and Ohashi as Principal Engineer of the Japanese scientists, whose German counterparts are Prof. Igenbergs and Dr. Muenzenmayr of the Fachgebiet Raumfahrttechnich, Techische Universtaet Muenchen.Through this international joint research, we have submitted several proposals for new TOF dust detector to be on-board future Japanese planetary and asteroid missions. We could not break through selection, but we are continuing basic experiments for this TOF dust detector development. All the more, we are also constructing dust accelerator at HIT (High Fluence Irradiation Facility), Research Center for Nuclear Science and Technologies of the University of Tokyo in Tokai-mura village. This is the third dust accelerator in the world. We are gradually getting exprienced in the field of cosmic dust in-situ measurement. Less