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Performance and surface scattering models for the Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionosphere Sounding (MARSIS)
Gurnett, D. A.; Johnson, W. T. K.; Orosei, R. +10 more
The primary scientific objective of the Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionosphere Sounding (MARSIS), which will be on board Mars Express mission scheduled for launch in 2003, is to map the distribution and depth of the liquid water/ice interface in the upper kilometres of the crust of Mars. MARSIS will also provide unique information to he…
Ion loss on Mars caused by the Kelvin Helmholtz instability
Kallio, E.; Barabash, S.; Gunell, H. +8 more
Mars Global Surveyor detected cold electrons above the Martian ionopause, which can be interpreted as detached ionospheric plasma clouds. Similar observations by the Pioneer Venus Orbiter electron temperature probe showed also extreme spatial irregularities of electrons in the form of plasma clouds on Venus, which were explained by the occurrence …
Evolution of the Martian atmosphere and hydrosphere: Solar wind erosion studied by ASPERA-3 on Mars Express
Lundin, Rickard; Barabash, Stanislav
The evolution of the Martian atmosphere and the potential existence of a past hydrosphere is a scientific issue of great interest in planetary research. Although the first missions to Mars had a focus on surface features and atmospheric properties, some of the missions (e.g., The Soviet Mars 2, 3 and 5) also carried instruments addressing the sola…
Visible and infrared spectroscopy of minerals and mixtures with the OMEGA/MARS-EXPRESS instrument
Gendrin, Aline; Bibring, Jean-Pierre; Langevin, Yves +4 more
We present the reflectance measurements made with OMEGA during ground calibration on a selection of minerals and mixtures considered as candidates for constituents of the Mars surface. OMEGA is the visible and infrared mapping spectrometer designed to fly on-board the ESA/MARS-EXPRESS probe. These measurements allow to evaluate the instrument perf…
The microscope for Beagle 2
Keller, H. U.; Hviid, S. F.; Thomas, N. +13 more
The microscope for the Beagle 2 lander, which was launched as part of the European Space Agency's Mars Express mission on 2 June 2003, will provide images of the Martian surface at around 6 µm resolution. It will provide optical images of the surface of Mars at a resolution 5 times higher than any other experiment currently planned. The devi…
The Beagle 2 environmental sensors: science goals and instrument description
Patel, M. R.; Zarnecki, J. C.; Wilson, C. F. +12 more
A suite of instruments on the Beagle 2 Mars lander was designed and built in order to investigate the environmental conditions at the landing site. The sensor suite was capable of measuring air temperature at two heights, surface level pressure, wind speed and direction, saltated particle momentum, UV flux (diffuse and direct at five wavelengths),…
Martian northern polar cap: Layering and possible implications for radar sounding
Ilyushin, Yaroslaw A.
The propagation of electromagnetic waves in the northern polar ice sheet of Mars is considered. It is shown that the dispersion and attenuation of radio waves in the polar sheet are regulated by two groups of factors: the physical and chemical composition of the ice, and the geometrical parameters of the layered structure of polar sheet. Both anal…
Visualization and topographical analysis of the Mars surface
Dorninger, P.; Jansa, J.; Briese, Ch.
The Institute of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing has more than 30 years of experience in computation, visualization and analysis of digital terrain data. Most of the developed methods and algorithms are implemented in the software application SCOP++ and tested on Earth datasets. Due to the institute's involvement into Mars Express, these methods…
Beagle-2 position determination from the returned camera panoramas using MOLA data
Michael, G. G.
After the Beagle-2 lander of the Mars Express mission comes to rest on the surface of Isidis Planitia in late December 2003 to carry out a range of geochemistry and exobiology experiments, there will be considerable interest in determining its exact location. This work considers the feasibility of identifying topographic features seen in the Mars …
Environmental predictions for the Beagle 2 lander, based on GCM climate simulations
Newman, C. E.; Lewis, S. R.; Read, P. L. +1 more
The Mars climate database (MCD) is a database of statistics based on output from physically consistent numerical model simulations which describe the climate and surface environment of Mars. It is used here to predict the meteorological environment of the Beagle 2 lander site. The database was constructed directly on the basis of output from multi…