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Meteoroid investigations using the long duration exposure facility

1994; American Institute of Physics; Linguagem: Inglês

10.1063/1.46517

1935-0465

M. E. Zolensky, F. Hörz, T. H. See, Ronald P. Bernhard, C. B. Dardano, Ruth A. Barrett, Kimberly S. Mack, Jack L. Warren, William H. Kinard,

Space Satellite Systems and Control

The Long Duration Exposure Facility was recovered in January, 1990, following 5.7 years of continuous exposure in low‐Earth orbit. The gravity‐stabilized (non‐spinning) nature of LDEF permits the spatial resolution of the flux and trajectories of impacting meteoroids and spacecraft debris particulates. We have completed the acquisition of high‐resolution, stereoscopic video imaging of all large impact features on the entire LDEF, and present here the preliminary results of our efforts to analyze these digitized images, and extract critical data. We present results of detailed crater surveys of LDEF frame intercostal members, and find an unusual local variation in the impact frequency. In a discussion of impactor fluxes derived from LDEF results we explore apparent directionalities for impacting particulates which are not accounted for in current models. We also describe current efforts to characterize meteoroid residues recovered from the impact craters, and we have found that a low, but significant, fraction of these residues have survived in a largely unmelted state.