Hyperdust: An advanced in-situ detection and chemical analysis of microparticles in space

The goal of dust astronomy is to uncover the information contained in individual cosmic dust grains. A series of previous dust instruments lead to novel in-situ instrumentation suitable for determining the origin and chemical and elemental composition of dust particles. A new instrument was developed that combines large target area, high mass-resolution, and accurate trajectory determination. The Hyperdust instrument is a combination of a Dust Trajectory Sensor (DTS) with an in-situ chemical analyzer. Dust particles' trajectories are determined by the measurement of induced charge signals, when a charged grain flies through a position-sensitive electrode system. A modern DTS can measure dust particles as small as 0.3 μm in radius and dust speeds up to 100 km/s. The chemical analyzer with ~0.1 m2 sensitive target area has a mass resolution > 200. The Hyperdust instrument is capable of distinguishing interstellar and interplanetary grains based on their trajectory information. The Hyperdust instrument is currently being developed to Technical Readiness Level (TRL) 6 funded by NASA's MatISSE program to be a low-mass, high performance instrument for future in-situ exploration. This paper describes its current state of development.

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