The Planetary Exploration Research Center of the Chiba Institute of Technology (PERC/Chitech) has launched a nano satellite project to conduct our own planetary science missions continually and frequently. We developed our second 3U CubeSat “ASTERISC” to monitor dust particles in low Earth orbit. A new large film type dust sensor system is mounted on the CubeSat.
The sensor is just a thin film attached with small tips of piezoelectric elements capable of picking up stress waves induced by impacts of dusts onto the film.
It enables a continuous real-time observation of interplanetary dust particles (IDPs) and artificial space debris particles in low Earth orbit. After launched by the JAXA Epsilon rocket in FY2021, the satellite is operated daily using our ground station in the Chiba Institute of Technology.
Advanced Satellite Toward Exploration of dust enviRonment with In-Situ Cosmic dust sensor（ASTERISC）
