The Mars MetNet Precursor Mission

Precursor mission overview

The design of the MetNet Lander (MNL) was started in August 2000. The main idea behind the MetNet landing vehicles is to use state-of-the-art inflatable entry and descent systems instead of rigid heat shields and parachutes as earlier semi-hard landing devices have used. This way the ratio of the payload mass to the overall mass is optimized, and more mass and volume resources are spared for the science payload... Read more

Landing site canditates

Launch Date

Mars MetNet Precursor Mission science objectives

Since meteorological and climatological phenomena have both temporal and spatial variations, characterisation of such phenomena require ideally simultaneous observations at multiple locations and over a sufficiently long period of time. Hence a surface network is the preferred means of observation. The spatial coverage as well as the temporal duration and resolution of observations need to be commensurate with the characteristic spatial and temporal scales of the phenomena being observed... Read more