Abstract

The Lunar Dust Experiment (LDEX) is an in situ dust detector onboard the Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE) mission. It is designed to characterize the variability of the dust in the lunar exosphere by mapping the size and spatial distributions of dust grains in the lunar environment as a function of local time and the position of the Moon with respect to the magnetosphere of the Earth. LDEX gauged the relative contributions of the two competing dust sources: (a) ejecta production due to the continual bombardment of the Moon by interplanetary micrometeoroids, and (b) lofting of small grains from the lunar surface due to plasma-induced near-surface electric fields.

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