Mars MetNet

This article is about the atmospheric science mission to Mars. For the MnSCU network website, see Metnet (website).

MetNet is an atmospheric science mission to Mars, initiated and defined by the Finnish Meteorological Institute. The mission includes sending several tens of MetNet landers on the Martian surface. The objective is to establish a widespread surface observation network on Mars to investigate the planet's atmospheric structure, physics and meteorology.

Concept and goals

The fact that both meteorology in particular and climatology in general vary both temporally and spatially means that the most effective means of monitoring these is to make simultaneous measurements at multiple locations and over a sufficiently long period of time. Bearing this in mind, MetNet includes both a global-scale, multi-point network of surface probes supplemented by a supporting satellite in orbit, for a projected duration of two Martian years. Somewhere in the range of ten to twenty observation points is seen as a minimum to get a good picture of atmospheric phenomena on a planet-wide scale.

Lander concept

The MetNet Lander vehicle will use inflatable entry and descent systems instead of rigid heat shields and parachutes as earlier semi-hard landing devices have used. This way the ratio of the payload mass to the overall mass is optimized, and more mass and volume resources are spared for the science payload. The MetNet Lander's atmospheric descent process can be partitioned into two phases: the primary aerodynamic or the Inflatable Braking Unit deceleration phase and the secondary aerodynamic or the Additional Inflatable Braking Unit deceleration phase. The operational lifetime of a lander on the Martian surface will be seven years.

Status

The descent vehicle has been fully qualified for Martian environment. Development of a precursory mission is under way and its launch is planned for 2011. The precursory mission will consist of one lander and is intended as a technology and science demonstration mission. More landers will be deployed in the following launch windows extending up to 2019.

Precursory mission

The precursory mission plans to send one or two MetNet demonstration landers to Mars in 2011. Two delivery concepts were being considered:

1. Piggyback delivery attached to the Russian Phobos Grunt Sample Return mission.
2. Dedicated launch using the Russian Volna — a converted Submarine/Sea-Launched Ballistic Missile (SLBM).

The FMI announced it would launch the demonstration lander onboard the Phobos Grunt mission on 2011.

The key contribution of the precursory mission is:

• Availability of new and high-quality resolution atmospheric vertical structures as well as long-duration (of the order of a Martian year) in situ meteorological and imaging observations at a single or few landing site(s)
• Demonstrated feasibility of the lander concept for a meteorological network mission.

Development

MetNet is a "successor" of the NetLander Mission's atmospheric leg. It is also continuance of the Russian Mars 96 mission. MetNet development has been going on since 2001.

MetNet is being developed by a consortium consisting of the Finnish Meteorological Institute (Mission Lead), Babakin Space Center (Systems Lead) and Russian Space Research Institute (Payload Lead, in cooperation with the FMI).

External links

• Introduction to the MetNet Mars Mission
• Template:PDFlink
• "Space technology – a forerunner in Finnish-Russian high-tech cooperation". Energy & Enviro Finland. October 17, 2007.
• MetNet — In Situ Observational Network and Orbital Platform to Investigate the Martian Environment (PDF). Helsinki: Finnish Meteorological Institute. 2007. ISBN 978-951-697-625-2. {{cite book}}: Cite uses deprecated parameter |authors= (help)