Small-Scale Trench in the Martian Soil: Conditions for Condensation of Atmospheric Volatiles at the Mars Polar Lander Site

Details Small-Scale Trench in the Martian Soil: Conditions for Condensation of Atmospheric Volatiles at the Mars Polar Lander Site Small-Scale Trench in the Martian Soil: Conditions for Condensation of Atmospheric Volatiles at the Mars Polar Lander Site

Jan 1998

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1998lpico.953...25m&link_type=abstract

The First International Conference on Mars Polar Science and Exploration, Proceedings of the Conference held at Camp Allen, TX.

Computer Science

Atmospheric Composition, Frost, Landing Sites, Mars Surface, Soils, Heat Transfer, Ditches, Carbon Dioxide, Diurnal Variations, Robot Arms, Mars Polar Lander

Scientific paper

Mars Polar Lander (MPL) is scheduled to be launched in January 1999 and to arrive at Mars in December 1999. The MPL landing site is at the edge of the south polar cap region. The lander will be equipped with a robotic arm (RA) capable of digging a small trench. It is to be expected that the facets of such a trench will be colder then the average surrounding surface. The 2.5-dimensional thermal calculations are used to estimate the diurnal variations of the temperature within a trench. It is found that, at least on the bottom of the trench, water will condense independently of time of day. It is also found that if the thermal conductivity of the martian soil is near the minimum expected value the condensation of the atmospheric CO2 should also be possible. Imaging of evolution of such surface frost will be possible with the camera attached to the RA.

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