WEATHER, SNOW & THE ELEMENTS: CANADIAN SCIENCE INSTRUMENTATION ON MARS

Paper number

IAC-09.A3.3A.9

Author

Mr. Michael G. Daly, MDA, Canada

Coauthor

Dr. Nadeem Ghafoor, MDA, Canada

Coauthor

Dr. Allan Carswell, Optech Ltd, Canada

Coauthor

Dr. James Whiteway, York University, Canada

Coauthor

Dr. Peter Taylor, York University, Canada

Coauthor

Dr. Cameron Dickinson, York University, Canada

Coauthor

Dr. Leonce Komguem, York University, Canada

Coauthor

Dr. Carlos F. Lange, University of Alberta, Canada

Coauthor

Mr. Ralf Gellert, University of Guelph, Canada

Year

2009

Abstract

The NASA Phoenix Mars Mission, which launched in august 2007, finished up its successful mission in November 2008.  Situated in the north of the planet, the mission gracefully degraded as planned as winter approached and there was less sunlight to power the mission.  This mission contained the first Canadian instruments on the surface of another planet.  The MET instrument suite contained two independent instruments. The first took accurate high-temporal resolution pressure and temperature measurements of the northernmost visited site on mars while the second provided atmospheric profiles of the atmosphere above the lander to heights of 20km.  The instruments exceeded expectations and provided never-before-seen views that have led to a new understanding of the atmosphere of Mars.

Following on this success, the second Canadian Mars surface instrument was recently delivered for flight – the Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer (APXS) instrument for the 2011 NASA Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) Mission.

This paper describes the Canadian instruments and their configuration as well as summarizes the results from the Canadian MET instruments and the expected performance of the MSL APXS.

Abstract document

IAC-09.A3.3A.9.pdf

Manuscript document

(absent)