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Radiation and Dust Sensor for Mars Environmental Dynamic Analyzer Onboard M2020 Rover

Victor Apestigue, Alejandro Gonzalo, Juan J. Jiménez, Justin Boland, Mark Lemmon, Jose R. de Mingo, Elisa García-Menendez, Joaquín Rivas, Joaquín Azcue, Laurent Bastide, Nuria Andrés-Santiuste, Javier Martínez-Oter, Miguel González-Guerrero, Alberto Martin-Ortega, Daniel Toledo, Francisco Javier Alvarez-Rios, Felipe Serrano , Boris Martín-Vodopivec, Javier Manzano, Raquel López Heredero, Isaías Carrasco, Sergio Aparicio, Ángel Carretero, Daniel R. MacDonald, Lori B. Moore, María Ángeles Alcacera, Jose A. Fernández-Viguri, Israel Martín, Margarita Yela, Maite Álvarez, Paula Manzano, Jose A. Martín, Juan C. del Hoyo, Manuel Reina, Roser Urqui, Jose A. Rodriguez-Manfredi, Manuel de la Torre Juárez, Christina Hernandez, Elizabeth Cordoba, Robin Leiter, Art Thompson, Soren Madsen, Michael D. Smith, Daniel Viúdez-Moreiras, Alfonso Saiz-Lopez, Agustín Sánchez-Lavega, Laura Gomez-Martín, Germán M. Martínez, Francisco J. Gómez-Elvira and Ignacio Arruego

Sernsors, 22, 2907, https://doi.org/10.3390/s22082907,2022.

Abstract:

The Radiation and Dust Sensor is one of six sensors of the Mars Environmental Dynamics Analyzer onboard the Perseverance rover from the Mars 2020 NASA mission. Its primary goal is to characterize the airbone dust in the Mars atmosphere, inferring its concentration, shape and optical properties. Thanks to its geometry, the sensor will be capable of studying dust-lifting processes with a high temporal resolution and high spatial coverage. Thanks to its multiwavelength design, it will characterize the solar spectrum from Mars’ surface. The present work describes the sensor design from the scientific and technical requirements, the qualification processes to demonstrate its endurance on Mars’ surface, the calibration activities to demonstrate its performance, and its validation campaign in a representative Mars analog. As a result of this process, we obtained a very compact sensor, fully digital, with a mass below 1 kg and exceptional power consumption and data budget features.

 

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