MEDIAN

Description: Methane Detection by In-Situ Analysis with Nano-Landers
PI: Jane MacArthur, BSc
Organization: University College London, UK

Summary

We demonstrate the use of three low cost cubesat-sized devices for maping a region of Mars in association with a large scale lander mission, the methane outgassing from detected ‘hotspots’ on the planet surface. Detections made by
ground based observations and from The demonstrated at low resolution that methane emissions are occurring from the planet. It is our aim to dramatically improve the ground based resolution of these regions, using a matrix of triangulated smaller scale landers with integrated location and transmission systems.
ESA Mars Express orbiter have

Objectives

• To determine what level of methane emissions can be accurately located by 3 nano-sat ‘landers’ placed according to a simulated drop.
• To use lander triangulation to determine accurate positional data on the methane emission source region.
• To demonstrate the feasibility of using low cost landers deployed from the primary lander during descent phase to do surface science

Experiment Data