TY - JOUR
T1 - Mars dust counter
AU - Igenbergs, Eduard
AU - Sasaki, Sho
AU - Münzenmayer, Ralf
AU - Ohashi, Hideo
AU - Färber, Georg
AU - Fischer, Franz
AU - Fujiwara, Akira
AU - Glasmachers, Albrecht
AU - Grün, Eberhard
AU - Hamabe, Yoshimi
AU - Iglseder, Heinrich
AU - Klinge, Dieter
AU - Miyamoto, Hideaki
AU - Mukai, Tadashi
AU - Naumann, Walter
AU - Nogami, Ken Ichi
AU - Schwehm, Gerhard
AU - Svedhem, Håkan
AU - Yamakoshi, Kazuo
PY - 1998
Y1 - 1998
N2 - In order to unveil the presence and characteristics of Martian dust rings/torus, Mars Dust Counter (MDC) is aboard ISAS's spacecraft PLANET-B, which will be launched in 1998 summer and investigate the upper atmosphere and surrounding environments of Mars between 1999 and 2001. MDC PLANET-B is an improved version of impact-ionization dust detectors aboard HITEN and BREMSAT. It weighs only 730 g with the sensor aperture area of 140 cm2. To improve signal to noise ratios and to precisely determine the risetime of signals, a neutral target channel is added independent of ion and electron target channels. Detectable velocity (v) range is between 1 km/s and more than 70 km/s, which will cover all possible dust clans: circummartian (low v), interplanetary (mid v), and interstellar (high v) particles. Measurable mass range is 5 x 10-15 and 10-10 g at v = 10 km/s. Since PLANET-B takes an elliptic retrograde orbit around Mars, MDC can investigate particles from Phobos and Deimos with relative velocity higher than 1 km/s. Therefore, MDC can clarify the presence of a confined dust ring along Phobos' orbit and an extended dust torus along Deimos' orbit, and it may answer whether these ring and torus are self-sustained or not. Since the nominal operation of PLANET-B is longer than one Martian year, MDC may detect predicted seasonal variation of the ring/torus structure.
AB - In order to unveil the presence and characteristics of Martian dust rings/torus, Mars Dust Counter (MDC) is aboard ISAS's spacecraft PLANET-B, which will be launched in 1998 summer and investigate the upper atmosphere and surrounding environments of Mars between 1999 and 2001. MDC PLANET-B is an improved version of impact-ionization dust detectors aboard HITEN and BREMSAT. It weighs only 730 g with the sensor aperture area of 140 cm2. To improve signal to noise ratios and to precisely determine the risetime of signals, a neutral target channel is added independent of ion and electron target channels. Detectable velocity (v) range is between 1 km/s and more than 70 km/s, which will cover all possible dust clans: circummartian (low v), interplanetary (mid v), and interstellar (high v) particles. Measurable mass range is 5 x 10-15 and 10-10 g at v = 10 km/s. Since PLANET-B takes an elliptic retrograde orbit around Mars, MDC can investigate particles from Phobos and Deimos with relative velocity higher than 1 km/s. Therefore, MDC can clarify the presence of a confined dust ring along Phobos' orbit and an extended dust torus along Deimos' orbit, and it may answer whether these ring and torus are self-sustained or not. Since the nominal operation of PLANET-B is longer than one Martian year, MDC may detect predicted seasonal variation of the ring/torus structure.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=7344250635&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1186/BF03352110
DO - 10.1186/BF03352110
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:7344250635
SN - 1343-8832
VL - 50
SP - 241
EP - 245
JO - Earth, Planets and Space
JF - Earth, Planets and Space
IS - 3
ER -