Preliminary design of the inlet duct of a dust analyzer for Mars

Airborne dust characterization is very important in planetary climatology, especially on Mars, where dust is always present and its concentration varies with seasons. This work deals with the design of the inlet duct of an instrument named MicroMED, devoted to characterize Martian dust but suitable to be mounted on different planetary landers or rovers. An inertial classifier has been developed to cut particles with diameter larger than 20 μm in order to avoid obstruction of the pumping system of the instrument. CFD simulations based on the Eulerian-Lagrangian approach were performed to characterize the separation performance of the classifier. Finally, the inlet duct has been mechanically designed by FE approach to assure resistance and proper mechanical behavior within expected mechanical environment.