Dust Science with the DESTINY+ Dust Analyzer

The DESTINY+
spacecraft (Demonstration and Experiment of Space Technology for
INterplanetary voYage with Phaethon fLyby and dUst Science) will be launched to the
active asteroid (3200) Phaethon by the Japanese Space Agency JAXA in 2024. The main
mission target will be Phaethon with a close flyby in 2028. Together with two cameras, the
DESTINY+ Dust Analyzer (DDA) on board will perform close observations of this rockcomet type object to solve essential questions related to the evolution of our inner Solar
System, especially the heating processes of small bodies. Phaethon is believed to be the
parent body of the Geminids meteor shower and is considered to be a comet-asteroid
transition object. Such objects likely play a major role to better understand the nature and
origin of mass accreted on to Earth. The DDA dust analyzer is an upgrade of the Cassini
Cosmic Dust Analyzer (CDA) which very successfully investigated the dust environment of
the Saturnian system. The DDA instrument is an impact ionization time-of-flight mass
spectrometer with integrated trajectory sensor, which will analyse sub-micrometer and
micrometer sized dust particles. The instrument will measure the particle composition (mass
resolution m/Δm ≈ 100-150), mass, electrical charge, impact velocity (about 10% accuracy),
and impact direction (about 10° accuracy). In addition to dust analysis in the vicinity of
Phaethon during the close flyby at this small asteroid, DDA will continuously measure dust
in interplanetary space in the spatial region between 0.9 and 1.1 AU during the
approximately four years spanning cruise phase from Earth to Phaethon. We give a progress
report of the instrument development together with an update on the preparation of the
scientific measurements planned during the DESTINY+ mission.