A dust impact detection system for the Giotto Halley mission
Abstract
A detection system which registers impacts from all significant masses of particles incident on the probe during the post perihelion encounter with Halley's Comet in 1986 is described. Instrumentation comprises three separate subsystems; an impact plasma and momentum sensor (IPM), a meteoroid shield momentum sensor (MSM), and a meteoroid shield penetration sensor which is an additional channel of the MSM system. The IPM sensor is a very high sensitivity impact plasma detector which measures the simultaneous positive and negative signals caused by a charge separation of the plasma in a lateral electric field. The MSM system deploys three 200 kHz resonant piezoelectric crystals on the periphery of the meteoroid shield, yielding a sensor area of 1.94 sq m. From the amplitude of the signals from the sensors both the impact position and impact momentum can be deduced. The system is controlled and data processed by a microprocessor yielding flexible formatting for information on the 100, 000 separate events to be transmitted during the brief encounter period.
- Publication:
-
ESA Scientific and Experimental Aspects of the Giotto Mission
- Pub Date:
- June 1981
- Bibcode:
- 1981esag.rept...61M
- Keywords:
-
- Cosmic Dust;
- Experiment Design;
- Flyby Missions;
- Halley'S Comet;
- Particle Size Distribution;
- Particulate Sampling;
- Astronomical Models;
- Kinetic Energy;
- Plasmas (Physics);
- Signal Processing;
- Time Of Flight Spectrometers;
- Spacecraft Instrumentation