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Earth Planets Space, 50, 241–245, 1998
241
1. Introduction
Mars Dust Counter (MDC) is a light-weight impact-
ionization type dust detector, which determines mass and
velocity of a particle using time variation of generated
charges (Fig. 1). MDC will be launched toward Mars aboard
PLANET-B spacecraft of ISAS in July, 1998. PLANET-B
will take elongated orbits whose apoapsis (~15R
M
; R
M
being
Martian equatorial radius) is far beyond the Deimos’ orbit.
The main objective of the mission is to study Martian
aeronomy, especially interaction between the Martian upper
atmosphere and the solar wind. The primary purpose of
MDC is to measure dust particles around Mars and reveal
distribution of the predicted Martian ring or torus of dust
particles from Phobos and Deimos (Soter, 1971; Horányi et
al., 1990; Ip and Banaszkiewicz, 1990; Juhász et al., 1993;
Sasaki, 1993, 1994, 1996; Ishimoto and Mukai, 1994; Krivov,
1994; Juhász and Horányi, 1995; Hamilton, 1996; Ishimoto,
1996; Krivov and Hamilton, 1997). MDC can also measure
other particles such as interplanetary dust, interstellar dust,
and space debris around the Earth.
2. Observation Sequences
Observation of MDC PLANET-B is divided into three
sequences according to PLANET-B orbital plans: (i) the
first five-month long parking orbits around the Earth, (ii) the
ten-month long transfer orbit from the Earth to Mars, and
(iii) the orbits around Mars (more than 2 years).
(i) The first parking orbits are elliptic and they involve
two lunar encounters. Their apogees are between 410,000
and 430,000 km and perigee altitudes are between 600 and
1200 km (ISAS and NEC, 1995). The final orbit between
two lunar encounters is a very elliptic one whose apogee is
1,710,000 km. Then MDC will detect interplanetary, inter-
stellar and circumterrestrial (space debris and lunar-origin)
dust particles. Other than space debris which will be detected
around the low altitude and the geosynchronous orbit, lunar-
origin particles which should be secondary ejecta of impacts
would be detected at larger distance from the Earth. It would
Mars Dust Counter
Eduard Igenbergs
1
, Sho Sasaki
2
, Ralf Münzenmayer
1
, Hideo Ohashi
3
, Georg Färber
4
, Franz Fischer
4
, Akira Fujiwara
5
,
Albrecht Glasmachers
6
, Eberhard Grün
7
, Yoshimi Hamabe
2
, Heinrich Iglseder
8
, Dieter Klinge
9
, Hideaki Miyamoto
2
,
Tadashi Mukai
10
, Walter Naumann
1
, Ken-ichi Nogami
11
, Gerhard Schwehm
9
, Håkan Svedhem
9
, and Kazuo Yamakoshi
12
*
1
Fachgebiet Raumfahrttechnik, Technische Universität München, Boltzmannstr. 15, 85748 Garching, Germany
2
Geological Institute, University of Tokyo, 7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-0033, Japan
3
Laboratory of Physics, Tokyo University of Fisheries, 4-5-7 Konan, Minato-ku, Tokyo 108-0075, Japan
4
Lehrstuhl für Prozeßrechner, Technische Universität München, 80333 München, Germany
5
Institute of Space and Astronautical Science, 3-1-1 Yoshinodai, Sagamihara, Kanagawa 229-8510, Japan
6
Universität / GH Wuppertal, FB13 Lehrstuhl für Meßtechnik, 42097 Wuppertal, Germany
7
Max Planck Institut für Kernphysik, Saupfercheckweg 1, 69117 Heidelberg, Germany
8
Satellite Technology and Microsystems, Roswitha von Gandelsheimweg 32, 42897 Remscheid/Lennep, Germany
9
Space Science Department, European Space Research and Technology Centre, European Space Agency,
P.O. Box 299, 2200 AG Noordwijk, The Netherlands
10
Kobe University, 1-1 Rokkoudai, Nada-ku, Kobe, Hyogo 657-0013, Japan
11
Dokkyo University School of Medicine, Mibu, Tochigi 312-0207, Japan
12
Institute for Cosmic Ray Research, University of Tokyo, Midori-cho, Tanashi, Tokyo 188-0002, Japan
(Received July 31, 1997; Revised November 30, 1997; Accepted January 23, 1998)
In order to unveil the presence and characteristics of Martian dust ring/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 environment 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
cm
2
. 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 × 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.
Copy right The Society of Geomagnetism and Earth, Planetary and Space Sciences
(SGEPSS); The Seismological Society of Japan; The Volcanological Society of Japan;
The Geodetic Society of Japan; The Japanese Society for Planetary Sciences.
*Deceased.
242 E. IGENBERGS et al.: MARS DUST COUNTER
be unlikely to detect circumlunar dust or levitated dust from
the lunar surface at the two lunar encounters, because their
encounter distances from the lunar gravity center are 6255
and 4457 km (ISAS and NEC, 1995). Comparison of the
results with previous data, especially of ISAS technology-
testing spacecraft HITEN, should be useful for calibration
of MDC itself. A dust detector aboard HITEN, which
observed dust environment of the Earth-Moon zone for
three years, was a prototype of the present MDC-PLANET-
B.
(ii) During the transfer orbit, MDC will measure dust
particles both of interplanetary and interstellar origins.
Interplanetary dust particles are supplied by asteroids and
comets; they take Keplerian orbits and their orbital radii
gradually decrease owing to the Poynting-Robertson effect.
Their typical size is 1 to a few 10 micron (10
–11
to 10
–7
g) and
detection velocity is a few to 10 km/s. On the other hand,
interstellar particles enter the solar system at relative veloc-
ity about 30 km/s (i.e., relative velocity of the solar system
with respect to surrounding interstellar gas) and their mass
is less than 10
–12
g (Grün et al., 1994). Then from the dif-
ferences of velocity, direction, and mass, we can discrimi-
nate between interplanetary and interstellar particles (Fig.
2(a)). Ulysses and HITEN results suggest that interstellar
particles entered into the inner solar system (Baguhl et al.,
1996; Svedhem et al., 1996). Cassini spacecraft will go
through the Earth-Mars region at the same time; MDC data
can also be compared with Cassini Dust Analyzer data.
Fig. 1. The outline and the interior of MDC PLANET-B. MDC consists of the lower electronics box and the upper sensor box made of aluminum and
Nomex honeycomb. All five inner walls of the sensor box are plated in gold and act as target area. The left figure shows the interior seen from the
side of MDC 15 connector. There are two entrance grids which should shield electric fields. MDC is attached to one of side panels of PLANET-
B by four flanges.
Fig. 2. Sensitivity range of MDC PLANET-B. (a) MDC sensitivity range is compared with typical ranges of relative velocity and mass of ring,
interplanetary, and interstellar dust particles. (b) MDC sensitivity range is compared with capabilities of dust accelerators used for calibration. In
both figures, the sensitivity range is shown between two dashed lines in velocity-mass diagram. Particles heavier than the upper limit are detected,
of course, although charge saturation at collectors would make it difficult to quantitatively determine their mass. As for the radius calculation, particle
density 2 g/cm
3
is assumed.
(a) (b)
E. IGENBERGS et al.: MARS DUST COUNTER 243
Fig. 3. Measurement principle of MDC. An impact of a dust particle on the target plate generates impact plasma. Positive ions are trapped by a
negatively biased collector (ion channel) and electrons are trapped by a positively biased collector (electron channel), then generated charge signals
are amplified and converted into digital data. From risetime (t) and peak charge (Q), information of velocity and mass of the particle is obtained.
Other than positive and negative collectors, charge variation at the grounded target plates is also measured as the third channel. Then the difference
of startup times gives additional information on impact velocity.
(iii) Around Mars, PLANET-B takes elliptic retrograde
orbits whose periapsis is 150 km from the surface and
apoapsis is 15R
M
. Since the planned orbits are close to the
zodiacal plane, they can sometimes intersect with Phobos
and Deimos orbits. Because of the large apoapsis, PLANET-
B can fully encompass the expected distribution (ring/torus)
of dust particles from Phobos and Deimos. Another important
advantage is that relative velocity between prograde ring
dust and retrograde PLANET-B will be larger than 1 km/s,
which is favorable for dust measurements by an impact-
ionization type detector. Other than circummartian particles
whose velocity is less than a few km/s and mass is larger than
10
–9
g, MDC will also continue measuring interplanetary
and interstellar particles. Those particles can be easily
distinguished from ring particles using differences of ve-
locity, direction, and mass, as noted in the above (Fig. 2(a)).
Since periapsis of PLANET-B is as low as 150 km, we can
monitor levitated dust from the lower atmosphere even if
dust transport through very thin outer atmosphere would not
be plausible.
3. MDC Instrumentation
MDC (Mars Dust Counter) is a light-weight impact ion-
ization dust detector, which is developed chiefly by
Technische Universität München (Technical University of
Munich) and Space Science Department of ESA-ESTEC
(European Space Research and Technology Centre of Eu-
ropean Space Agency) (Igenbergs et al., 1996a). It is an
improved version of HITEN and BREMSAT dust detectors
which successfully measured dust particles around the Earth-
Moon region and at the low Earth orbit, respectively
(Igenbergs et al., 1991a, b). The MDC was designed to
determine not only flux but also mass and velocity of dust
particles in space by measuring ion and electron charges
produced by high velocity (v > 1 km/s) impacts of those
particles on gold plate targets. Unlike other impact ioniza-
tion type detectors, MDC weighs only 730 g. Its dimension
is 136 × 127 × 181 mm
3
and sensor aperture is 124 × 115 mm
2
(Fig. 1). The power consumption of MDC is 3.78 W.
The interior structure and mechanical outline of MDC are
shown in Fig. 1. MDC consists of electronic and sensor
boxes which are made of lightweight honeycomb of alu-
minum and Nomex. The aperture of the sensor box is
covered by two sets of grounded steel grids in order to
reduce electromagnetic noises from the outside and to shield
internal electric field. All five inner walls, which are covered
with gold plates, act as the target area for dust impacts. MDC
is mounted with four flanges onto the side panel of PLANET-
B. The sensor aperture is looking toward 45 degree back-
wards from the spacecraft’s spin axis, around which it scans
within the field of view. Because the spin axis is parallel to
the sun direction in the circumterrestrial orbit and to the
Earth direction during transfer and circummartian orbits,
the sensor box can avoid sunlight illumination, which would
raise noise levels owing to photoelectrons.
Figure 3 shows the principle of MDC experiment. There
are two charge collector plates which are biased by positive
and negative voltages (±240 V). When a dust particle
impacts on the gold target, impact plasma is generated and
separated into positive ions on the negative collector (ion
channel) and electrons on the positive collector (electron
channel). Then, impact charges are recorded by both chan-
nels. Calibration experiments suggested that gold target as
well as (even rather than) dust materials should supply
244 E. IGENBERGS et al.: MARS DUST COUNTER
plasma at the impact. In MDC PLANET-B, charge signals
on the grounded neutral target are also recorded. This third
channel is useful in distinguishing impact signals from noise
signals, because in previous experiments there were events
where only the electron channel had a signal and some of
them could be a noise rather than a real impact. The neutral
channel is also useful in determining impact velocity since
we can measure time difference between the impact on the
neutral target and the arrival of ions and electrons on biased
plates.
The charge outputs are digitized by a transient recorder
with two 8 bit A/D converters of 2.5 MHz and a FIFO
memory. To reduce error in converting charges with more
than 10
4
order of magnitude range to digital data, we use
logarithmic charge sensitive amplifiers. Signal processing
and control of spacecraft interface are done by 80C85 CPU
with 4 KB ROM and 56 KB RAM. Each impact data is 1 KB
with 200
µ
s measurement time. Up to 51 sets of impact
signals can be stored in on-board RAM. Those data are
transmitted to the Earth when impact number exceeds a
certain warning value (e.g., 40).
In evaluating each charge signal curve, amplitude and
risetime of charge are the most important values, which give
mass m and velocity v of a dust particle. There are empirical
relations
t = c
g
v
η
(1)
±Q/m = c
r
v
β
(2)
where Q is the maximum charge and t is risetime of a charge
signal. Both Q and t can be estimated directly from the
impact charge signals as seen in Fig. 3. In the above, c
g
, c
r
,
η
, and
β
are constants which should be determined by cali-
bration experiments using dust accelerators (Igenbergs et al.,
1996b). There are three sets of equations corresponding to
electron, ion, and neutral channels. At first, using the risetime,
impact velocity is estimated from Eq. (1), and then particle
mass is derived from Eq. (2). As for electron and ion
channels, results of calibration experiments can be expressed
by the above equations for wide range of velocity between
2 and 70 km/s (Igenbergs et al., 1996b). We have confirmed
that there might be some other methods to determine velocity,
e.g., using the ratio of charges due to primary impact and
secondary ejecta, or using time delay between neutral,
electron and ion channels, although further calibration ex-
periments are necessary for establishing these methods.
The charge sensitive amplifiers can measure charges
between 5 × 10
–16
and 1 × 10
–11
C. From calibration ex-
periments, Q/m at v = 10 km/s is between 0.1 and 1 C/g
depending on the impact position in the sensor. Thus,
particles with mass approximately between 5 × 10
–15
and
10
–10
g can be measured. This corresponds to particle
diameter range between 0.1 and 10 micron at 10 km/s.
Larger (>10 micron at 10 km/s) particles can be detected,
although charge saturation at collectors would make it
difficult to determine their mass. Figure 2 shows the sen-
sitivity range of MDC. Under slower impact velocity at one
to a few km/s, which is expected for circummartian dust,
particles as large as 100 micron would be measured.
For the purpose of the ground calibration experiments of
MDC, two dust accelerator facilities are used. One is a Van
de Graaf electrostatic particle accelerator at the Max Planck
Institut für Kernphysik in Heidelberg, and the other is a
plasmadynamic particle accelerator at Fachgebiet
Raumfahrttechnik, Technische Universität München. Ve-
locity and mass ranges executed at both facilities are shown
in Fig. 2(b). Results of preliminary calibration experiments
are described in Igenbergs et al. (1996b).
4. Detection of Martian Ring/Torus
Soter (1971) first advocated the existence of a dust ring of
secondary ejecta particles when interplanetary dust particle
impacts on the Phobos surface. Viking image data suggested
that there is no dust ring whose optical depth is larger than
5 × 10
–5
(Duxbury and Ocampo, 1988). It was not until
PHOBOS 2 ASPERA found indirect evidence of a dust/gas
torus when many works started on the subject on the Martian
dust ring. There, ion mass spectrometry suggested the ex-
istence of a large mass number particles, which could be
ascribed to very fine dust (<0.1 micron) (Dubinin et al., 1990).
Recent theoretical studies (e.g., Juhász and Horányi, 1995;
Hamilton, 1996; Ishimoto, 1996; Sasaki, 1996) show that
solar radiation pressure as well as Martian oblateness should
enhance the orbital eccentricity of particles (from both
Phobos and Deimos) and inclination of particles (from
Deimos only) greatly. As for particles from Phobos, eccen-
tricity of particles smaller than 200 micron is greatly increased
owing to the resonance of phase shift due to Martian ob-
lateness. And eccentricity of particles smaller than 20 mi-
cron becomes so large that they are quickly captured by
Mars. Since inclination is not largely increased, dust particles
from Phobos would form a thin dust ring whose thickness
would be less than 300 km. The eccentricity of dust particles
from Deimos is also enhanced by radiation pressure, but the
combined effect with Martian oblateness also increases
inclination to be as high as 0.2 to form an extended torus,
which would contain smaller particles than those of the
Phobos’ ring.
If the secondary ejecta only from interplanetary dust
impacts on the satellite surfaces should contribute the
circummartian dust, expected detection number of ring/
torus particles would be smaller than that of interplanetary
particle. However, collisions of once-ejected ring particles
on the satellites may produce additional dust particles, since
the surfaces of Phobos and Deimos are covered with regolith
and their escape velocities are as small as 10 m/s. In this self-
sustained case (Sasaki, 1994, 1996), expected dust number
density will be much higher so that MDC will detect the
Phobos’ ring and the Deimos’ torus.
Hamilton (1996) and Krivov and Hamilton (1997) predict
seasonal variation of dust ring structures. If dust abundance
is high enough, MDC may detect change of dust distribution
according to seasons, since nominal duration of PLANET-
B operation is one Martian year.
Although the predicted dust ring seems to be distributed
uniformly in space, the detection of fresh, rather dense dust
ejecta is expected near satellites. Planet-B will encounter
with Phobos on about 280th and 420th days and with
Deimos on about 150th and 550th days from the insertion to
E. IGENBERGS et al.: MARS DUST COUNTER 245
Mars. During those close encounters, MDC may measure
direct dust ejecta from satellites.
Acknowledgments. We acknowledge Jose Maria Castro for the
supporting work on MDC electronics, Gerhard Schäber and Ralf
Srama for the assistance during calibration experiments at MPI
accelerator, and Kurt Graf and Rainer Ondrusch for laboratory
works at Technische Universität München. We thank Hiroshi
Ishimoto and Doug Hamilton for discussions on dust rings. We are
grateful to anonymous reviewers for helpful comments.
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