Abstract
AbstractPLANET-B is an ISAS spacecraft which will investigate the upper atmosphere and the surroundings of Mars between 1999 and 2001 To clarify the presence and characteristics of the Martian dust ring/torus, an impact ionization dust detector will be on board PLANET-B The detector (PLANET B Mars Dust Counter), which is an improved version of the Munich Dust Counters of HITEN and BREMSAT, will weigh only 630g with an aperture area 140cm2. The detectable mass range will be between 10-16g and more than 10-6g and the velocity range will be from 1km/s to more than 70km/s. Since PLANET-B executes retrograde elliptic orbits close to the zodiacal plane, our detector can investigate the spatial distribution of prograde dust particles from Phobos and Deimos with relative encounter velocity as large as or higher than 1km/s. PLANET-B MDC shall also measure the dust environment around the Earth and interplanetary and possibly interstellar dust particles.
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