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The Lunar Dust Experiment (LDEX) Onboard the Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE) Mission

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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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Acknowledgements

The LADEE/LDEX project has been supported by NASA. The initial development of the dust accelerator facility was supported by NASA’s Lunar Science Institute (NLSI) Colorado Center for Lunar Dust and Atmospheric Studies (CCLDAS), it is currently supported by the Solar System Exploration Research Virtual Institute (SSERVI): Institute for Modeling Plasmas, Atmospheres, and Cosmic Dust (IMPACT) project. The project also received support from DLR, Germany.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO, 80303, USA

    M. Horányi, Z. Sternovsky, M. Lankton, C. Dumont, S. Gagnard, D. Gathright, E. Grün, D. Hansen, D. James, S. Kempf, B. Lamprecht, J. R. Szalay & G. Wright

  2. Solar System Exploration Research Virtual Institute (SSERVI)—Institute for Modeling Plasmas, Atmospheres, and Cosmic Dust (IMPACT), University of Colorado, Boulder, USA

    M. Horányi, Z. Sternovsky, M. Lankton, E. Grün, D. James, S. Kempf & J. R. Szalay

  3. Max Planck Institut für Kernphysik, 69117, Heidelberg, Germany

    E. Grün

  4. Institut für Raumfahrtsysteme, Universität Stuttgart, Raumfahrtzentrum Baden Württemberg, 70569, Stuttgart, Germany

    R. Srama

  5. Baylor University, Waco, TX, 76706, USA

    R. Srama

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  1. M. Horányi
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  2. Z. Sternovsky
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  3. M. Lankton
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  4. C. Dumont
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  9. D. James
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  13. J. R. Szalay
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  14. G. Wright
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Horányi, M., Sternovsky, Z., Lankton, M. et al. The Lunar Dust Experiment (LDEX) Onboard the Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE) Mission. Space Sci Rev 185, 93–113 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11214-014-0118-7

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