First Announcement:  Virtual Workshop on Gateway Dust Studies in 2030s  

    Date: March 27-28, 2023  

    Venue: Online    

    Host: Dust Studies Working Group in the Gateway Utilization Co-ordination Group (DSWG/GUCP)  

    Day-1:  3/27 Mon.  13:00-17:00 CET   =  07:00-11:00 ET (Houston/Washington 06:00-10:00) = 20:00-24:00 JST 

    Day-2:  3/28 Tue.   14:00-16:00 CET   = 08:00-10:00 ET (Houston/Washington 07:00-09:00) = 21:00-23:00 JST 

     

    The partner space agencies in the Lunar Gateway; JAXA, ESA, NASA, and CSA will hold a virtual workshop for the scientific, engineering and operational communities in March 2023 to explore the opportunities that Gateway may offer for observations of cosmic dust and lunar ejecta for both natural and anthropogenic causes in the early 2030s.   

    The Gateway is a human tended orbital outpost in the vicinity of the Moon that is being assembled during this decade. Gateway offers opportunities for external instrumentation to measure cosmic dust and lunar ejecta in-situ and the potential for the return of captured dust samples, without artificial space debris population.   In the mid-2020s, JAXA’s Low Velocity Dust Monitor (LVDM) as a part of ESA/ERSA exposed payload suite will start the first measurement of the dust environment in the vicinity of Gateway.    

    The early 2030s will be of particular interest for the dedicated observation and potential sample return of small interstellar dust particles, which are able to enter the inner Solar System as a result of their interaction with the heliosphere during this specific phase of the solar cycle. This period will not be observable again until the 2050s.   

    This workshop will cover four distinct themes on the first day. Each theme will be introduced by a single invited presentation and followed by a community discussion on the topic.   

    • Opportunities for interstellar dust observations in the early 2030s   

    • Introduction by Veerle Sterken (ETH Zurich) 

    • Interplanetary dust science enabled by Gateway   

    • Introduction by Hajime Yano (JAXA) 

    • Observations of the evolving lunar dust environment at Gateway due to human activity   

    • Introduction by Ron Lee (NASA) 

    • Observational requirements, measurement techniques and instrumentation  

    •  Introduction by Penelope Wozniakiewicz (University of Kent) 

    For each of these areas findings will be prepared during the meeting and discussed during the second day of the workshop. The aim of the second day of the workshop will be to generate a set of findings and recommendations that will brought to the Gateway partner agencies.  

     

    The objectives of the workshop are to establish a community position on the following:   

    • The nature and scientific value of a dedicated interstellar dust observation campaign in the early 2030s  

    • The potential scientific benefits of measurements of other cosmic dust populations in this time period   

    • The importance of measuring the evolution of the lunar dust population nearby Gateway   

    • The status of measurement and possible collection techniques and instrumentation required and the associated accommodation and operational needs.   

     

    The outcomes of this workshop will be assessed by the Gateway partner agencies and will be used to support future decisions on overall priorities for the utilisation of Gateway resources.   

     

    Workshop Organising Committee:   

    William Archer (CSA), Gary Brown (NASA), James Carpenter (ESA), Hajime Yano (JAXA)