The National Weather Service (NWS) releases approximately 75,000 radiosondes each year to measure pressure, altitude, temperature, relative humidity, wind and cosmic radiation [1]. The data obtained from these measurements have led to a more thorough understanding of the Earth s lower atmosphere. On the contrary, there have been only six fully successful landings on Mars, and there is much less known about the variations in winds, density, etc., in the mid-regions of the Martian atmosphere (see Fig. 1). This data is vital to understanding Martian weather and the development of Mars landers for larger payloads [2,3,4]. Mars has too much atmosphere to land like is done on the moon, and too little atmosphere to land like is done on Earth. It is suggested that radiosondes could be added as secondary payloads on Mars missions and used to map physical properties in the different regions of the Martian atmosphere.


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    Title :

    Radiosondes for Characterizing the Martian Atmosphere


    Contributors:

    Conference:

    Concepts and Approaches for Mars Exploration ; 2012 ; Houston, TX, United States


    Publication date :

    2012-06-12


    Type of media :

    Conference paper


    Type of material :

    No indication


    Language :

    English




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