Study of Cosmic Dust Particles on Board LDEF and MIR Space Station

AbstractInterplanetary and near-earth space contains solid objects whose size distribution continuously covers the interval from submicron sized particles to km sized asteroids or comets. Two French experiments partly devoted to the detection of cosmic dust have been flown recently in space. One on the NASA Long Duration Exposure Facility (LDEF), and one on the Soviet MIR Space Station. A variety of sensors and collecting devices will make possible the study of cosmic particles after recovery of exposed material. Flux mass distribution is expected to be derived from craters counts, with a good accuracy. Remnants of particles, suitable for chemical identification are expected to be found within stacked foil detectors. Discrimination between extraterrestrial particles and man-made orbital debris will be possible.

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The use of tethered satellites for the collection of cosmic dust andthe sampling of man-made orbital debris far from the Space Shuttle and Space Station

10.2514/6.1989-1596 ◽

1989 ◽

Author(s):

G. CORSO

Keyword(s):

Space Shuttle ◽

Space Station ◽

Cosmic Dust ◽

Orbital Debris ◽

Tethered Satellites

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Cosmic dust and orbital debris: Collection on MIR space station

Advances in Space Research ◽

10.1016/0273-1177(91)90548-x ◽

1991 ◽

Vol 11 (12) ◽

pp. 93-96

Author(s):

J.C. Mandeville

Keyword(s):

Space Station ◽

Cosmic Dust ◽

Orbital Debris

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SEM studies of fracture phenomena and wall structure in micrometeoroid impact craters in spacecraft metals

Proceedings, annual meeting, Electron Microscopy Society of America ◽

10.1017/s0424820100131292 ◽

1992 ◽

Vol 50 (2) ◽

pp. 1332-1333

Author(s):

L. E. Murr ◽

C-S. Niou ◽

J. M. Rivas ◽

S. Quinones ◽

A. H. Advani

Keyword(s):

Crack Nucleation ◽

Interplanetary Dust ◽

Impact Craters ◽

Orbital Debris ◽

Dust Particles ◽

Wall Structure ◽

Considerable Effort ◽

Interplanetary Dust Particles ◽

Long Duration ◽

Target Metal

There has been a considerable effort over nearly a decade to examine the size frequencies, compositions, and origins of particles producing impact craters in a variety of materials surfaces on the Solar Maximum Mission spacecraft, retrieved communications satellites (such as Palapa-B2), and more recently the LDEF (Long Duration Exposure Facility) spacecraft. Three regimes of particles have emerged: natural cosmic dust or interplanetary dust particles (IDP's), man-made orbital debris (including paint or other spacecraft component or coating chips having compositions different from the impacted materials); and orbital debris, often spacecraft debris or secondary (ejecta) debris, having the same composition as the impacted material. However more than 50% of all LDEF impacts into metallic targets did not yield sufficient projectile residue to permit analysis using EDS techniques in electron beam instruments (SEM or STEM in particular).There have been very few attempts to investigate the microstructural and microchemical nature of the micrometeoroid crater walls, especially in the context of the integrity of the wall in relation to the target metal, and the propensity for cracking and crack nucleation within the crater wall.

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