Galactic interstellar dust (ISD) is the major ingredient in planetary forma
tion. However, information on this important material has been extremely li
mited. Recently, the Ulysses dust detector has identified and measured inte
rstellar dust outside 1.8 AU from the Sun at ecliptic latitudes above 50 de
grees, Inside this distance it could not reliably distinguish interstellar
from interplanetary dust. Modeling the Ulysses data suggests that up to 30%
of dust flux with masses above 10(-16) kg at 1 AU is of interstellar origi
n. From the Hiten satellite in high eccentric orbit about the Earth, there
are indications that ISD indeed reaches the Earth's orbit. Two new missions
carrying dust detectors, Cassini and Stardust, will greatly increase our o
bservational knowledge. In this paper we briefly review instruments used on
these missions and compare their capabilities. The Stardust mission [Brown
lee et al,, 1996] will analyze the local interstellar dust population by an
in situ chemical analyzer and collect ISD between 2 and 3 AU from the Sun.
The dust analyzer on the Cassini mission will determine the interstellar d
ust flux outside Venus' orbit and will provide also some compositional info
rmation. Techniques to identify the ISD flux levels at 1 AU are, described
that can quantify the interstellar dust flux in high Earth orbit (outside t
he debris belts) and provide chemical composition information of galactic d
ust.