[meteorite-list] Atmosphere Checked, One Mars Year Before a Landing

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Wed, 29 Sep 2010 14:09:15 -0700 (PDT)
Message-ID: <201009292109.o8TL9FRI016735_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2010-316

Atmosphere Checked, One Mars Year Before a Landing
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
September 29, 2010

PASADENA, Calif. -- What will the Martian atmosphere be like when the
next Mars rover descends through it for landing in August of 2012?

An instrument studying the Martian atmosphere from orbit has begun a
four-week campaign to characterize daily atmosphere changes, one Mars
year before the arrival of the Mars Science Laboratory rover, Curiosity.
A Mars year equals 687 Earth days.

The planet's thin atmosphere of carbon dioxide is highly repeatable from
year to year at the same time of day and seasonal date during northern
spring and summer on Mars.

The Mars Climate Sounder instrument on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance
Orbiter maps the distribution of temperature, dust, and water ice in the
atmosphere. Temperature variations with height indicate how fast air
density changes and thus the rates at which the incoming spacecraft
slows down and heats up during its descent.

"It is currently one Mars year before the Mars Science Laboratory
arrival season," said atmospheric scientist David Kass of NASA's Jet
Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. "This campaign will provide a
set of observations to support the Mars Science Laboratory engineering
team and Mars atmospheric modelers. The information will constrain the
expected climate at their landing season. It will also help define the
range of possible weather conditions on landing day."

During the four years the Mars Climate Sounder has been studying the
Martian atmosphere, its observations have seen conditions only at about
three in the afternoon and three in the morning. For the new campaign,
the instrument team is inaugurating a new observation mode, looking to
both sides as well as forward. This provides views of the atmosphere
earlier and later in the day by more than an hour, covering the range of
possible times of day that the rover will pass through the atmosphere
before landing.

JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology, provided the
Mars Climate Sounder instrument and manages the Mars Reconnaissance
Orbiter and Mars Science Laboratory projects for NASA's Science Mission
Directorate, Washington. For more about NASA's Mars exploration program,
see http://marsprogram.jpl.nasa.gov .

Guy Webster 818-354-6278
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
guy.webster at jpl.nasa.gov

2010-316
Received on Wed 29 Sep 2010 05:09:15 PM PDT