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Seasonal and Short Timescale Changes on the Martian Surface: Multi-Spacecraft Perspectives
Thomas, N.; Schmidt, F.; Tirsch, D. +7 more
The continued operation of missions such as Mars Express, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, and the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter has greatly enhanced our knowledge of seasonal processes on Mars. The most apparent evidence of the importance of seasons on Mars on the large scale is annual variation in the sizes of the Martian polar caps. However, high resol…
Airglow and Aurora in the Martian Atmosphere: Contributions by the Mars Express and ExoMars TGO Missions
Montmessin, Franck; Fedorova, Anna; Gérard, Jean-Claude +6 more
The study of atmospheric emissions from orbit to probe the middle and upper atmosphere of Mars, which started with the Mariner missions, is living a golden era thanks to the European Space Agency (ESA) Mars Express mission and other subsequent missions built upon its success, including the ESA ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) mission. Here we summa…
Dust and Clouds on Mars: The View from Mars Express
Montmessin, F.; Fedorova, A.; Sánchez-Lavega, A. +11 more
European Space Agency's Mars Express (MEX) has been orbiting Mars for 20 years and its instruments have provided a plethora of observations of atmospheric dust and clouds. These observations have been analysed to produce many unique views of the processes leading to dust lifting and cloud formation, and a full picture of the climatologies of dust …
Composition and Chemistry of the Martian Atmosphere as Observed by Mars Express and ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter
Montmessin, Franck; Korablev, Oleg; Fedorova, Anna +13 more
The atmosphere of Mars has been studied for many years now by a long series of missions. The paper focuses on the results obtained by two of these that are led by European researchers overseen by the European Space Agency, i.e., Mars Express which was launched in 2003 and ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter launched in 2016. Both missions are still providin…
The ExoMars Schiaparelli Entry, Descent and Landing Demonstrator Module (EDM) System Design
Bayle, Olivier; Ball, Andrew J.; Blancquaert, Thierry +3 more
The Entry, Descent and Landing Demonstrator Module (EDM) named Schiaparelli, was the ESA-led Mars lander element of the ESA-Roscosmos ExoMars 2016 mission. Following launch on 14 March 2016 with the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) and cruise to Mars, Schiaparelli separated for encounter with Mars to demonstrate entry, descent and landing technolog…
ExoMars Atmospheric Mars Entry and Landing Investigations and Analysis (AMELIA)
Colombatti, Giacomo; Bettanini, Carlo; Aboudan, Alessio +25 more
The entry, descent and landing of Schiaparelli, the ExoMars Entry, descent and landing Demonstrator Module (EDM), offered a rare (once-per-mission) opportunity for in situ investigations of the martian environment over a wide altitude range. The aim of the ExoMars AMELIA experiment was to exploit the Entry, Descent and Landing System (EDLS) engine…
The Atmospheric Chemistry Suite (ACS) of Three Spectrometers for the ExoMars 2016 Trace Gas Orbiter
Zelenyi, L. M.; Lopez-Valverde, M. A.; Patel, M. R. +71 more
The Atmospheric Chemistry Suite (ACS) package is an element of the Russian contribution to the ESA-Roscosmos ExoMars 2016 Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) mission. ACS consists of three separate infrared spectrometers, sharing common mechanical, electrical, and thermal interfaces. This ensemble of spectrometers has been designed and developed in response t…
NOMAD, an Integrated Suite of Three Spectrometers for the ExoMars Trace Gas Mission: Technical Description, Science Objectives and Expected Performance
Aoki, S.; Vandaele, A. C.; Daerden, F. +50 more
The NOMAD ("Nadir and Occultation for MArs Discovery") spectrometer suite on board the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) has been designed to investigate the composition of Mars' atmosphere, with a particular focus on trace gases, clouds and dust. The detection sensitivity for trace gases is considerably improved compared to previous Mars missions, …
Fine Resolution Epithermal Neutron Detector (FREND) Onboard the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter
Mitrofanov, I.; Zelenyi, L. M.; Malakhov, A. +23 more
ExoMars is a two-launch mission undertaken by Roscosmos and European Space Agency. Trace Gas Orbiter, a satellite part of the 2016 launch carries the Fine Resolution Neutron Detector instrument as part of its payload. The instrument aims at mapping hydrogen content in the upper meter of Martian soil with spatial resolution between 60 and 200 km di…
Image Simulation and Assessment of the Colour and Spatial Capabilities of the Colour and Stereo Surface Imaging System (CaSSIS) on the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter
Seelos, Frank P.; El-Maarry, M. R.; Tornabene, Livio L. +21 more
This study aims to assess the spatial and visible/near-infrared (VNIR) colour/spectral capabilities of the 4-band Colour and Stereo Surface Imaging System (CaSSIS) aboard the ExoMars 2016 Trace Grace Orbiter (TGO). The instrument response functions for the CaSSIS imager was used to resample spectral libraries, modelled spectra and to construct spe…