Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 April 2016
The Munich Dust Counter (MDC) is a scientific experiment on board the MUSES-A mission of Japan measuring cosmic dust. The satellite HITEN of this mission has been launched on January 24th, 1990 from Kagoshima Space Center. Here the present status of the MDC experiment is summarized. The number of dust particles measured so far is presented together with first and preliminary results of flux calculations and spatial as well as directional distributions of cosmic dust particles measured until July 25, 1990. A clear evidence of particles coming from the inner solar system (beta-meteoroids) already has been found. These are compared to particles coming from the apex direction.