MetNet
Encyclopedia
MetNet is an atmospheric science mission to Mars
Mars
Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun in the Solar System. The planet is named after the Roman god of war, Mars. It is often described as the "Red Planet", as the iron oxide prevalent on its surface gives it a reddish appearance...

, initiated and defined by the Finnish Meteorological Institute
Finnish Meteorological Institute
The Finnish Meteorological Institute is the government agency responsible for gathering and reporting weather data and forecasts in Finland. It is a part of the Ministry of Transport and Communications but it operates semi-autonomously....

. The mission includes sending several tens of MetNet landers
Lander (spacecraft)
A lander is a spacecraft which descends toward and comes to rest on the surface of an astronomical body. For bodies with atmospheres, the landing is called atmospheric reentry and the lander descends as a re-entry vehicle...

 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. A precursory mission consisting of one lander is scheduled for launch in the launch window starting from 2014.

Concept and goals

The fact that both meteorology
Meteorology
Meteorology is the interdisciplinary scientific study of the atmosphere. Studies in the field stretch back millennia, though significant progress in meteorology did not occur until the 18th century. The 19th century saw breakthroughs occur after observing networks developed across several countries...

 in particular and climatology
Climatology
Climatology is the study of climate, scientifically defined as weather conditions averaged over a period of time, and is a branch of the atmospheric sciences...

 in general vary both temporally
Time
Time is a part of the measuring system used to sequence events, to compare the durations of events and the intervals between them, and to quantify rates of change such as the motions of objects....

 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 shield
Heat shield
A heat shield is designed to shield a substance from absorbing excessive heat from an outside source by either dissipating, reflecting or simply absorbing the heat...

s and parachute
Parachute
A parachute is a device used to slow the motion of an object through an atmosphere by creating drag, or in the case of ram-air parachutes, aerodynamic lift. Parachutes are usually made out of light, strong cloth, originally silk, now most commonly nylon...

s as earlier semi-hard landing devices have used. This way the ratio of the payload mass to the overall mass
Mass
Mass can be defined as a quantitive measure of the resistance an object has to change in its velocity.In physics, mass commonly refers to any of the following three properties of matter, which have been shown experimentally to be equivalent:...

 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 during the launch windows starting from 2014. 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 in the launch window beginning from 2014. For the earlier launch window, 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
    Volna
    Space launch vehicle Volna , is a converted SLBM used for launching artificial satellites into orbit. It is based on the R-29R designed by State Rocket Center Makayev and related to the Shtil' Launch Vehicle . The Volna is a 3 stage launch vehicle that uses liquid propellant...

     — a converted Submarine/Sea-Launched Ballistic Missile
    Ballistic missile
    A ballistic missile is a missile that follows a sub-orbital ballistic flightpath with the objective of delivering one or more warheads to a predetermined target. The missile is only guided during the relatively brief initial powered phase of flight and its course is subsequently governed by the...

     (SLBM).


The FMI
Finnish Meteorological Institute
The Finnish Meteorological Institute is the government agency responsible for gathering and reporting weather data and forecasts in Finland. It is a part of the Ministry of Transport and Communications but it operates semi-autonomously....

 announced it would launch the demonstration lander onboard the Phobos Grunt mission on 2011. However, the MetNet lander was later dropped from the Phobos-Grunt mission due to weight constraints on the spacecraft.

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
NetLander
For late 2007 CNES and ESA had planned to send to Mars a remote sensing orbiter and four small Netlanders. The Netlanders were to have landed in four different Mars locations....

 Mission's atmospheric leg. It is also continuance of the Russian Mars 96
Mars 96
Mars 96 was a failed Mars mission launched in 1996 to investigate Mars by the Russian Space Forces and not directly related to the Soviet Mars probe program of the same name. After failure of the second fourth-stage burn, the probe assembly re-entered the Earth's atmosphere, breaking up over a...

 mission. MetNet development has been going on since 2001.

MetNet is being developed by a consortium consisting of the Finnish Meteorological Institute
Finnish Meteorological Institute
The Finnish Meteorological Institute is the government agency responsible for gathering and reporting weather data and forecasts in Finland. It is a part of the Ministry of Transport and Communications but it operates semi-autonomously....

 (Mission Lead), Babakin Space Centre
Babakin Space Centre
The Babakin Science & Research Space Centre is a division of the Lavochkin Design Bearau, an avionics company based outside Moscow, and is managed by them on behalf of Roscosmos. It is named after Georgy N. Babakin, Chief Designer of the Lavochkin Association from 1965 to 1971....

 (Systems Lead) and Russian Space Research Institute
Russian Space Research Institute
The Russian Space Research Institute is the leading organization of the Russian Academy of Sciences on space exploration to benefit fundamental science....

(Payload Lead, in cooperation with the FMI).

External links

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