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Smrekar et al. 1999
Smrekar, S., Catling, D., Lorenz, R., Magalhães, J., Moersch, J., Morgan, P., Murray, B., Presley-Holloway, M., Yen, A., Zent, A. and Blaney, D. (1999). Deep Space 2: The Mars Microprobe Mission. Journal of Geophysical Research 104: doi: 10.1029/1999JE001073. issn: 0148-0227.

The Mars Microprobe Mission will be the second of the New Millennium Program's technology development missions to planetary bodies. The mission consists of two penetrators that weigh 2.4 kg each and are being carried as a piggyback payload on the Mars Polar Lander cruise ring. The spacecraft arrive at Mars on December 3, 1999. The two identical penetrators will impact the surface at ~190 m/s and penetrate up to 0.6 m. They will land within 1 to 10 km of each other and ~50 km from the Polar Lander on the south polar layered terrain. The primary objective of the mission is to demonstrate technologies that will enable future science missions and, in particular, network science missions. A secondary goal is to acquire science data. A subsurface evolved water experiment and a thermal conductivity experiment will estimate the water content and thermal properties of the regolith. The atmospheric density, pressure, and temperature will be derived using descent deceleration data. Impact accelerometer data will be used to determine the depth of penetration, the hardness of the regolith, and the presence or absence of 10 cm scale layers. ¿ 1999 American Geophysical Union

BACKGROUND DATA FILES

Abstract

Keywords
Planetology, Solid Surface Planets, Atmospheres—structure and dynamics, Planetology, Solid Surface Planets, Physical properties of materials, Planetology, Solid Surface Planets, Polar regions, Planetology, Solar System Objects, Mars
Journal
Journal of Geophysical Research
http://www.agu.org/journals/jb/
Publisher
American Geophysical Union
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