PASSIVE MEASUREMENT OF DUST PARTICLES ON THE ISS USING MPAC: EXPERIMENT SUMMARY, PARTICLE FLUXES AND CHEMICAL ANALYSIS

MPAC&SEED is a JAXA-owned experiment for particle capture and material exposure mounted on an aluminium tray that can be folded into a suitcase for transportation. Three such trays have been placed on the exterior of the Russian Service Module (SM) of the International Space Station (ISS). Two have already been retrieved. We describe the overall experiment, and provide details and results of the post-flight inspection and analysis so far obtained, including some chemical data. In addition, we provide details of extensive contamination observed on the surfaces of the experiment, particularly in aerogel, that we believe is worth considering when designing future experiments of this type that utilise the ISS.