An in-situ cosmic-dust instrument called the Mercury Dust Monitor (MDM) had been developed as a part of the science payload for the Mio (Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter, MMO) stage of the joint European Space Agency (ESA)–JAXA Mercury-exploration mission. The BepiColombo spacecraft was successfully launched by an Ariane 5 rocket on October 20, 2018, and commissioning tests of the science payload were successfully completed in near-earth orbit before injection into a long journey to Mercury. MDM has a sensor consisting of four plates of piezoelectric lead zirconate titanate (PZT), which converts the mechanical stress (or strain) induced by dust-particle impacts into electrical signals. After the commencement of scientific operations, MDM will measure the impact momentum at which dust particles in orbit around the Sun collide with the sensor and record the arrival direction. This paper provides basic information concerning the MDM instrument and its predicted scientific operation as a future reference for scientific articles concerning the MDM’s observational data.

中文翻译：

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BepiColombo 任务的 Mio 轨道飞行器上的水星尘埃监测仪 (MDM)

作为欧洲航天局 (ESA)-JAXA Mercury-Mio（水星磁层轨道飞行器，MMO）阶段科学有效载荷的一部分，已经开发了一种称为水星尘埃监测器 (MDM) 的原位宇宙尘埃仪器。探索任务。BepiColombo 航天器于 2018 年 10 月 20 日由阿丽亚娜 5 号火箭成功发射，科学有效载荷的调试测试在注入到水星的长途旅程之前在近地轨道上成功完成。MDM 的传感器由四块压电锆钛酸铅 (PZT) 板组成，可将灰尘颗粒撞击引起的机械应力（或应变）转换为电信号。科学行动开始后，MDM 将测量环绕太阳轨道上的尘埃粒子与传感器碰撞时的撞击动量并记录到达方向。本文提供了有关 MDM 仪器及其预测科学运行的基本信息，作为未来有关 MDM 观测数据的科学文章的参考。