NASA’s first weather report from Jezero Crater on Mars

The weather often plays a role in our daily plans. You can wear a light jacket if the forecast requires a cool breeze or delay your travel plans due to an impending storm. NASA engineers use weather data to notify their plans as well, so they analyze the conditions that are traveled millions of miles away on Mars.

The Mars Environmental Dynamics Analyzer (MEDA) system aboard NASA’s Perseverance Rover was only turned on for 30 minutes on February 19, about one day after the Rover touched the Red Planet. Around 20:25 PST the same day, engineers received initial data from MEDA.

“After a nail-biting entry and landing phase, our MEDA team anxiously awaited the first data that would confirm that our instrument landed safely,” said Jose Antonio Rodriguez-Manfredi, MEDA Principal Investigator at the Centro de Astrobiología (CAB) at the Instituto, said. Nacional de Tecnica Aeroespacial in Madrid. “These were moments of great intensity and excitement. Finally, after years of work and planning, we received the first data report from MEDA. Our system came alive and sent its first meteorological data and images from the SkyCam.”

MEDA weighs about 5.5 kilograms and contains a range of environmental sensors to record dust levels and six atmospheric conditions – wind (both velocity and direction), pressure, relative humidity, air temperature, ground temperature and radiation (from both the Sun and space). The system wakes itself up every hour, and after being recorded and stored, it goes to sleep independently of the rover operations. The system records data, whether it is awake day or night or not.

As engineers received MEDA’s first data points on Earth, the team compiled its first weather report from the Jezero crater on Mars.

According to the data, it was just less than minus 4 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 20 degrees Celsius) on the surface when the system started recording, and that the temperature dropped to minus 14 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 25.6 degrees Celsius) within 30 minutes.

According to reports from MEDA’s radiation and dust sensor, Jezero experienced a cleaner atmosphere around the same time as the Gale crater, about 3,700 kilometers away, according to reports from the Rover Environmental Monitoring Station (REMS) aboard the Curiosity rover which is stationed in Gale. And MEDA’s pressure sensors told engineers that the pressure on Mars was 718 Pascal, which was predicted within the 705-735 Pascal range by their models for that time on Mars.

Bridging the atmosphere gap

Thanks to telescopes here on Earth and spacecraft orbiting Mars, scientists have a good understanding of the climate of the Red Planet and even some insight into the extent of dust storms during a single Mars year (two Earth years). However, the prediction of dust removal and transportation, or how small storms develop into large storms that surround the entire planet, will benefit future scientific and reconnaissance missions.

During the next year, MEDA will provide valuable information on temperature cycles, heat flows, dust cycles and how dust particles interact with light, which ultimately affects temperature and weather. Equally important will be MEDA’s readings of solar radiation intensity, cloud formations and local winds that could inform the design of the planned Mars Sample Return mission. In addition, the measurements will help engineers better understand how to prepare humans and habitats to handle the conditions on Mars.

REMS aboard the Curiosity rover currently provide similar daily weather and atmospheric data. MEDA, developed through an international collaboration, builds on the autonomous weather station configuration of REMS and offers some upgrades. The system was provided by Spain and developed by CAB with contributions from the Finnish Meteorological Institute. The US contributions were funded by the Game Changing Development Program in NASA’s Space Technology Directorate.

With higher overall durability and additional temperature readings, MEDA can record temperatures at three atmospheric heights: 2.76 feet (0.84 meters), 4.76 feet (1.45 meters) and 98.43 feet (30 meters), above and below except the surface temperature. The system uses sensors on the body and the machine and an infrared sensor that can measure the temperature of about 100 feet above the car. MEDA also records the near-surface radiation budget, which will help prepare for future human reconnaissance missions on Mars.

With the MEDA weather reports, engineers now have atmospheric data from three different locations on the Red Planet: perseverance, curiosity, and NASA’s InSight lander, which provides the temperature and wind sensors for InSight (TWINS). The trio will allow a deeper understanding of the weather patterns, events and atmospheric turbulence of Mars that could affect planning for future missions. In the short term, MEDA’s information will help determine the best atmospheric conditions for the Ingenuity Mars helicopter flights.

Since Ingenuity reached milestones before the flight, a MEDA report of the 43rd and 44th March Days, or sols, of the mission (April 3-4 on Earth) has a temperature of minus 7.6 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 22 degrees Celsius) and shown low. of minus 117.4 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 83 degrees Celsius) in Jezero crater. MEDA also measured gusts of approximately 22 mph (10 meters per second).

“We are very excited to see that MEDA is working well,” said Manuel de la Torre Juárez, deputy principal investigator for MEDA at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. “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 mysteries on Mars and help prepare for human reconnaissance. We hope its data will help to make our designs stronger and our missions safer. ‘

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