Near-earth cosmic dust results from S-149
Three space exposures (34, 46 and 33 days) of thin films and polished metal plates with a total area of 0.12 sq m per exposure were carried out during Skylab via the S-149 experiment. Study of the materials recovered indicates that the S-149 experiment contains important information concerning cosmic dust in the near-earth vicinity. Craters and penetration holes have been found ranging from 135 micron diameter to less than 0.5 micron. A cosmic dust flux curve in the mass range from 10 to the minus 16th to 10 to the minus 7th grams is presented. Evidence is given concerning the directional characteristics of the particles and their breakup in near-earth space is presented.