Mercury Dust Monitor (MDM) Onboard the Mio Orbiter of the BepiColombo Mission

Space Science Reviews - In this chapter, we review the contribution of space missions to the determination of the elemental and isotopic composition of Earth, Moon and the terrestrial planets, with...     

Laboratory calibration measurements of a piezoelectric lead zirconate titanate cosmic dust detector at low velocities

A cosmic dust monitor for use onboard a spacecraft is currently being developed using a piezoelectric lead zirconate titanate element (PZT). Its characteristics of the PZT sensor is studied by ground-based laboratory impact experiments using hypervelocity particles supplied by a Van de Graaff accelerator. The output signals obtained from the sensor just after the impact appeared to have a waveform that was explicitly related to the particle’s impact velocity. For velocities less than ∼6 km/s, the signal showed an oscillation pattern and the amplitude was proportional to the momentum of the impacting particle. For higher velocities, the signal gradually changed to a single waveform. The rise time of this single waveform was proportional to the particle’s velocity for velocities above ∼6 km/s. The present paper reports on results for the low velocity case and especially discusses the effect of an outer coating of the sensor with a paint, which is used to reduce heating by solar radiation.     

Characteristics of piezoelectric lead zirconate titanate multilayered detector bombarded with hypervelocity iron particles

A cosmic dust detector is currently being developed using a piezoelectric lead zirconate titanate (PZT) element. The characteristics of the multilayered detector (MD), which was composed of one hundred PZT disks, were investigated by bombarding it with hypervelocity iron particles supplied by a Van de Graaff accelerator. It was confirmed that there was a linear relationship between the signal amplitude observed from MD and the momentum of the particles. As compared with the single-layered detector (SD) that was composed of one PZT disk, it was found that the sensitivity of MD was ∼3 times higher than that of SD within the limits of the experimental conditions.     

Response of a pentagonal PZT element as a component of a 4π-real-time detector

The detector characteristics of a pentagonal element were studied by colliding it with hypervelocity micro-particles. A charge-sensitive amplifier was developed for the element of its capacitance ∼10 nF. The output amplitudes were expressed as a linear function of the momentum at collision. Empirical formulas obtained from on-ground experiments could be used for the calibration of the detector. The pentagonal element was potential to measure the momentum during collision from the output amplitude. A set of electrodes on the surface was used to confirm the measurement of the coordinates at collision. A possible application of this pentagonal element on a real-time dust detector was discussed.