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IMCCE Meteor Showers - Threat for Spacecrafts on other planets

• Presentation

You may think your spacecraft is somewhat more secured if it is located very far form the Earth, where the human space debris are inexistent. Well, it is partially true. The human activity may not be as important than in LEO or GEO, but cometary activity can well be. For example, the Mariner IV spacecraft encountered a very dense meteoroid stream on its way to Mars in the 60's. These days, lots of spacecrafts are approaching cometary nuclei, and are potentially entering a meteoroid stream.

• The particular case of Mars

If your spacecraft is orbiting Mars, you have to realize that there are twice as many meteor showers than on Earth. The relative velocity may be smaller than at 1 AU, but does it really matter when the order of magnitude is of kms?
You may still think your Lander is in security, thanks to the atmosphere of the planet. Unfortunately you are wrong. Unlike on the Earth, the atmosphere is so tiny that meteoroids are falling right into the ground, and create cm-size craters.

• Work at IMCCE

Several spacecrafts environnements have been studied using to a new approach. These are: Rosetta, Mariner IV, MGS, Venus Express, StarDust, Deep Impact etc. Lots of these studies are still going on. Any spacecarft can detect (or have detected) an extra-terrestrial meteor shower activity. We are always happy to create new collaborations and are open to any needs: please feel free to contact us!

• Why it is important for us?
(Let's match our respective needs)