In the near-Earth space, both orbital debris and natural (cosmic) particles contribute to the particulate environment (Tuzzolino et al., 1992). The present-day lack of quantitative measurements of the flux, velocity / trajectory, and time characteristics of small debris particles continues to hamper the development of reliable evolutionary modeling of orbital debris, and the need for these data remains as an important goal in this field.

The SPAce DUSt (SPADUS) experiment addresses this need, providing important information on a) the orbital characteristics and possible sources of near-Earth cosmic dust and b) the mass distribution of meteor-stream particles which may be encountered. SPADUS is currently under development for launch on the STP Advanced Research and Global Observation Satellite (ARGOS) in spring of 1997, and will be jointly developed by groups at The University of Chicago (dust sensors and linear electronics), the Lockheed Space Sciences Laboratory (digital electronics), and the Space Sciences Division of the Naval Research Laboratory (mechanical design and construction). SPADUS will be integrated and flown by the DOD Space Test Program. ARGOS is planned to be sun synchronous with a beta angle of 35 degrees and an altitude of 833 km. The ADS portion of SPADUS is a joint effort between Taylor University and the University of Chicago.