Mars Dust Counter (MDC) on board NOZOMI: Initial results

Mars Dust Counter (MDC) is a light-weight (730g) impact-ionization dust detector onboard NOZOMI, a Japanese Mars mission, which was launched on July 4th 1998. The main aim of MDC is to detect the predicted Martian dust rings/tori. It can also cover velocitymass ranges of interplanetary and interstellar dust particles. By August 2000, MDC had detected more than 60 dust particles. In 1999, it detected five fast particles probably of interstellar origin. For five years from 1999 to 2003, NOZOMI will orbit the sun and MDC can measure interplanetary and interstellar dust between the Earth's and Mars' orbits.