The Mars Environmental Dynamics Analyzer, MEDA. A Suite of Environmental Sensors for the Mars 2020 Mission
J. A. Rodríguez‐Manfredi, Manuel de la Torre Juárez, A. Alonso, V. Apéstigue, Ignacio Arruego, Teresa Atienza, D. Banfield, Justin Boland, Megan Carrera, Luís Castañer, J. Ceballos, H. Chen‐Chen, A. Cobos, P. G. Conrad, Elizabeth Córdoba-Lanús, T. del Río‐Gaztelurrutia, Á. Vicente‐Retortillo, Manuel Domínguez-Pumar, S. Espejo, Alberto González Fairén, A. Fernández-Palma, Ricardo Ferrándiz, F. Ferri, Erik Fischer, A. García-Manchado, Miriam García‐Villadangos, María Genzer, Sixto Giménez, Javier Gómez‐Elvira, Felipe Gómez, Scott D. Guzewich, Ari‐Matti Harri, C. D. Hernández, Maria Hieta, R. Hueso, Iina Jaakonaho, J. J. Jiménez, V. Jiménez, A. Larman, Robin M. Leiter, A. Lepinette, M. T. Lemmon, Genevieve Lopez, S.N. Madsen, T. Mäkinen, M. Marín, Javier Martín-Soler, Germán Martínez, A. Molina, Luis Mora‐Sotomayor, Jose F. Moreno-Alvarez, Sara Navarro, Claire Newman, Cristina Ortega, M. C. Parrondo, V. Peinado, Arthur Dela Peña, Isabel Pérez-Grande, S. Pérez‐Hoyos, Jorge Pla‐García, Jouni Polkko, Marina Postigo, O. Prieto‐Ballesteros, Scot Rafkin, Miguel Ramos, M. I. Richardson, J. Romeral, C. Romero, Kirby Runyon, Alfonso Saiz‐Lopez, A. Sánchez‐Lavega, I. Sard, J. T. Schofield, Eduardo Sebastián, M. D. Smith, R. Sullivan, L. K. Tamppari, A. D. Thompson, Daniel Toledo, F. Torrero, J. Torres, R. Urquí, T. Velasco, Daniel Viúdez‐Moreiras, S. Zurita, The MEDA team
Abstract
NASA's Mars 2020 (M2020) rover mission includes a suite of sensors to monitor current environmental conditions near the surface of Mars and to constrain bulk aerosol properties from changes in atmospheric radiation at the surface. The Mars Environmental Dynamics Analyzer (MEDA) consists of a set of meteorological sensors including wind sensor, a barometer, a relative humidity sensor, a set of 5 thermocouples to measure atmospheric temperature at ∼1.5 m and ∼0.5 m above the surface, a set of thermopiles to characterize the thermal IR brightness temperatures of the surface and the lower atmosphere. MEDA adds a radiation and dust sensor to monitor the optical atmospheric properties that can be used to infer bulk aerosol physical properties such as particle size distribution, non-sphericity, and concentration. The MEDA package and its scientific purpose are described in this document as well as how it responded to the calibration tests and how it helps prepare for the human exploration of Mars. A comparison is also presented to previous environmental monitoring payloads landed on Mars on the Viking, Pathfinder, Phoenix, MSL, and InSight spacecraft.