Meteor Hazard for Interplanetary Flights in the Ecliptic Plane

Abstract

To increase the safety of interplanetary missions, it is necessary to have estimates of the meteor hazard along the flight trajectory. Meteoroid particles of known meteor showers that cross the ecliptic plane at a distance of 1 AU from the Sun are observed as “shooting stars” in the Earth’s atmosphere. However, such meteor streams are principally not observable in interplanetary space. The existence of some meteor streams can be predicted using periodic comets as indicators. During their evolution, cometary nuclei expel meteoritic particles, which remain in the parent orbit for millennia. Thus, the orbits of comets can be considered coinciding with the orbits of young meteor streams produced by the decay of cometary nuclei. We have calculated the coordinates of the regions of intersection of known periodic comets with the ecliptic plane, which are considered as regions of increased meteor hazard. Old meteoroid streams originating from totally decayed comets may be tens and hundreds of times more numerous than young streams. All of them are potential sources of direct meteor collisions with space probes. To assess the risk of interplanetary missions, the planned flight trajectory of FOBOS-GRUNT is compared with the regions of expected meteor streams, and the dates of the most dangerous encounters are given.