Work

DEX in near Earth orbit in light of Venus Orbiter Dust Experiment

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: Study of IDP has been of interest to researchers for few decades, primarily after missions like Galileo, Ulysses, Cassini, Stardust and observations of comet, Hale-Bopp. The data from experiment like GORID have extended our knowledge about dust surrounding Earth. Similar attempts were made for understanding IDP at planets like Mars and Venus, however, in-situ measurements of IDP are awaited. We have proposed VODEX as well as MODEX for measuring dust around Venus and Mars, respectively and the Dust EXperiment (DEX), a replica of the same, was recently flown in near-Earth orbit at ~ 350 km using POEM of PSLV C-58 (XPoSat) mission. DEX was found working successfully in space and it has also shown presence of IDP in near-Earth orbit during its operation from 1 st January to 9 th February 2024. Here we report, developmental aspects of DEX, observational details and results. The measured time-resolved IDP flux is from ~ 10 −3 -10 −2 # m −2 s −1 and the flux during entire observational period is 6.46 × 10 −3 [2.95 × 10 −3 , 9.97 × 10 −3 ] # m −2 s −1 from direct detection of IDP in near-Earth environment. The experiment was useful to demonstrate working of dust detector and also, it can provide new measurements of IDP entering Earth.

Source: Scientific Reports

DOI: 10.1038/s41598-025-21988-2