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Mars Volatiles and Climate Surveyor (MVACS) Integrated Payload for the Mars Polar Lander MissionThe Mars Volatiles and Climate Surveyor (MVACS) integrated payload for the Mars Polar Lander will be launched in January 1999, with a scheduled landing on Mars' south-polar layered deposits in December 1999. Over the course of its 90-day nominal mission during the martian southern spring and summer seasons, it will make in situ measurements that will provide new insights into the behavior and distribution of martian volatiles, MVACS consists of four major instrument systems: a surface stereo imager (SSI), which will acquire multispectral stereo images of the surface and atmosphere; a 2-m robotic arm (RA), which will dig a O.5-m deep trench and acquire surface and subsurface samples that will be imaged by a focusable robotic arm camera (RAC), which will take close-up images of surface and subsurface samples at a spatial resolution of 21 micron; a meteorology package (MET), which will make the first measurements of surface pressure, temperature, and winds in Mars' southern hemisphere and employ a tunable diode laser (TDL) spectrometer to measure the water-vapor concentration and isotopic composition of CO2 in the martian atmosphere; and a thermal and evolved gas analyzer (TEGA), which will use differential scanning calorimetry and TDL-evolved gas analysis to determine the concentrations of ices, adsorbed volatiles, and volatile-bearing minerals in surface and subsurface soil samples. The unique in situ measurements made by MVACS at its high-latitude landing site will define a number of important aspects of the physical, isotopic, and chemical nature of the martian near-surface and subsurface environment that will be valuable in better understanding Mars meteorites and returned samples, as well as in the search for martian resources that could be utilized by humans.
Document ID
19990036046
Acquisition Source
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Document Type
Abstract
Authors
Paige, D. A.
(California Univ. Los Angeles, CA United States)
Boynton, W. V.
(Arizona Univ. Tucson, AZ United States)
Crisp, D.
(Jet Propulsion Lab., California Inst. of Tech. Pasadena, CA United States)
DeJong, E.
(Jet Propulsion Lab., California Inst. of Tech. Pasadena, CA United States)
Harri, A. M.
(Finnish Meteorological Inst. Helsinki, Finland)
Hansen, C. J.
(Jet Propulsion Lab., California Inst. of Tech. Pasadena, CA United States)
Keller, H. U.
(Max-Planck-Inst. fuer Aeronomie Katlenburg-Lindau, Germany)
Leshin, L. A.
(California Univ. Los Angeles, CA United States)
Smith, P. H.
(Arizona Univ. Tucson, AZ United States)
Zurek, R. W.
(Jet Propulsion Lab., California Inst. of Tech. Pasadena, CA United States)
Date Acquired
August 19, 2013
Publication Date
January 1, 1998
Publication Information
Publication: The First International Conference on Mars Polar Science and Exploration
Subject Category
Lunar And Planetary Exploration
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Work of the US Gov. Public Use Permitted.

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