The Scientific Need for a Dedicated Interplanetary Dust Instrument at Mars
Résumé
Interplanetary dust is a scientifically important constituent of the Solar System
that consists of material shed by asteroids, comets, and other airless bodies. As used
here, the term “dust” includes interplanetary dust particles and micrometeoroids. Dust
has been studied by missions such as Mariner, Pioneer, and Voyager in both
interplanetary space and in the vicinity of most of the planets.To date, however, no
dedicated interplanetary dust instrument has yet been employed for detailed analysis of
the dust environment of Mars. Partial data on dust flux has been provided by the 1965
Mariner IV flyby, the MAVEN orbiter, and other missions, but a complete understanding
of interplanetary dust abundance, composition, debris hazard, annual flux variation, and
origins is lacking. These data are critical for understanding the effects of dust upon the
martian system, including the carbonaceous input into the regolith of Mars and its
moons, the chemical input into the martian atmosphere, potential effects upon remote
sensing data, the hypothesized existence of a Phobos dust ring, and possible annual
variations from meteor shower infall. These effects have direct ramifications for
interpretation of Mars/Phobos/Deimos mission science and analysis of returned
samples from those worlds. To remediate this shortfall, the authors recommend that
a dedicated interplanetary dust analysis instrument should be included in the
instrument package for an upcoming martian orbiter in the near term. Such an
interplanetary dust analysis instrument should collect data over a time period of several
martian years in order to generate a statistically robust data set on interplanetary dust
concentration and flux over a wide range of mass, and to discern temporal variation
over multiple martian years.
Domaines
Planète et Univers [physics]
Origine : Fichiers produits par l'(les) auteur(s)