Sampling with a luster sounding rocket during a Leonid Meteor Shower

A Luster micrometeoroid sampling payload was successfully launched and recovered during the Leonid meteor shower November 16, 1965, at White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico. The instrument opened at an altitude of 63 km and exposed 2 m2 of sampling surface area. The rocket carried the exposed sampling surfaces to a height of 145 km. The instrument reclosed at 116 km after 206 sec of sampling time and was parachuted to earth after severance from the rocket. An extensive contamination control program using laminar flow clean rooms was applied to all phases of the experiment in an attempt to exclude contaminating particles larger than 0.5 μ. About 3% (264 cm2) of the sampling area has been surveyed with the optical microscope. Every particle larger than 4 μ, which could not be recognized as a known contaminant, has been removed and examined with an electron microprobe X-ray analyzer. On the basis of morphology and chemical composition, each particle has been categorized as to possible origin. Results to date indicate that the number of particles found on this area, which may have an extraterrestrial origin, is much smaller than predictions based on measurements from artificial earth satellites and other sounding rocket collections.