In-situ lunar dust deposition amount induced by lander landing in Chang’E-3 mission

China first in-situ lunar dust experiment is performed by a lunar dust detector in Chang’E-3 mission. The existed dust (less than 20 µm in diameter) properties, such as levitation, transportation and adhesion, are critical constraints for future lunar exploration program and even manned lunar exploration. Based on the problems discussed above, the in-situ lunar dust detector is originally designed to characterize dust deposition properties induced by lander landing as a function of environmental temperature, solar incident angle and orbit short circuit current on the northern Mare Imbrium, aiming to study lunar dust deposition properties induced by lander landing in depth. This paper begins with a brief of introduction of Chang’E-3 lunar dust detector design, followed by a series of experimental analysis of this instrument under different influencing factors, and concludes with lunar dust mass density deposition amount observed on the first lunar day is about 0.83 mg/cm2, which is less than that observed in Apollo 11 mission because the landing site of Chang’E-3 has the youngest mare basalts comparing with previous Apollo and lunar landing sites. The young geologic environment is less weathered and thus it has thinner layer of lunar dust than Apollo missions’; hence, the amount of kicked-up lunar dust in Chang’E-3 mission is less than that in Apollo 11 mission.