Engineers at NASA received the first weather report from the Jezero crater of Mars, where the agency’s Perseverance Rover landed in February.
The Rover’s Mars Environmental Dynamics Analyzer (MEDA) system has returned data on atmospheric conditions that will be used to inform future efforts.
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As measurements were received, the rover’s team determined that the surface temperature on the red planet was just below minus 4 degrees Fahrenheit when MEDA’s system began recording on February 19, a day after landing.
According to a Tuesday version, the temperature dropped to minus 14 degrees Fahrenheit within half an hour.
In addition, the MEDA radiation and dust sensor showed that the crater has a clearer atmosphere than the Marsgale crater about 2300 kilometers away.
They compared the reading using reports from the Rover Environmental Monitoring Station (REMS) aboard NASA’s Curiosity Rover, which landed in the Gale Crater in November 2011.
The MEDA pressure sensors also noted that the pressure on Mar was within a predictable range of 718 Pascal.
Although NASA has a relative understanding of the Martian climate, the prediction of dust storms and dust removal will help bring about future exploration by receiving data from the InSight Lander’s temperature and gain sensors (TWINS).
Over the course of the next year, MEDA will provide NASA lectures on solar radiation intensity, cloud formations and winds, dust cycles and heat flow, and temperature cycles.
MEDA, which includes environmental sensors, is waking up every hour to record more – regardless of Perseverance’s operations.
It is able to record the temperature at three atmospheric altitudes and also records the radiation budget near the surface.
“We are very excited to see that MEDA is working well,” Manuel de la Torre Juárez, deputy principal investigator for MEDA at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, said in a statement.
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“MEDA’s reports will give a better picture of the environment near the surface. Data from MEDA and other instrument experiments will reveal more pieces of the mystery on Mars and help prepare for human exploration. We hope its data will help our designs to strengthen and make our missions safer, ‘he added.
In the coming days, NASA will use MEDA to determine the best atmospheric flight conditions for the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter.
The ingenuity is scheduled to begin soon on April 11 after surviving the first of its icy Mars nights.