Embedded electrostatic sensors for Mars exploration missions

Instrumentation on NASA's Mars landers have shown that winds airlift dust-size grains of iron-rich clays which are the weathering products of the abundant iron- and magnesium-rich volcanic rocks commonly found on the Martian surface. Experiments conducted at Arizona State University and at NASA Ames Research Center, as well as similar experiments in our laboratory, suggest that when these dust particles are transported by the wind, they collide and develop electrostatic charges. It has been suggested that sand-size particles on the surface could be aggregates of dust particles bound to each other by electrostatic forces. This paper describes the design of electrostatic sensors embedded in different materials commonly used in planetary spacecraft and their possible use in future exploration missions to the planet.