Mars Sonic Anemometer

The surface-atmosphere exchanges of momentum, heat, and tracers (e.g., water, CH4, dust) on Mars are critical forcings that control weather, climate, aeolian processes, water stability, etc. These exchanges occur through turbulent eddies, requiring fast sampling, and high sensitivity and precision to resolve, a capability out of reach of all previous martian wind sensors. Our Mars Sonic Anemometer is ~20X faster, more sensitive and precise than predecessors and enables direct measurement of the turbulent eddies, and thus their surface-atmosphere exchanges. Measurements with our Mars Sonic Anemometer would advance our understanding of aeolian processes, saltation, dust lifting, the energy balance of the diurnal convective layer, the stability of water in the subsurface, etc. These advancements are all relevant to Decadal Survey & NASA Strategic Goals such as “Understand the processes and history of climate.” Our instrument would also likely contribute to atmospheric model improvement through providing a richer constraining data set, likely reducing future risks in EDL to, and Ascent from, Mars.

It would be applicable on essentially all but the absolute smallest of Mars landers, requiring only ~500g and 500mW. With minor adaptations, it could also be used on a Venus cloud-level balloon mission, in Earth’s stratosphere (potentially commercially), on Titan, or on Saturn or Ice Giant Probes.

With support from PICASSO, the Mars Sonic Anemometer is currently at TRL5, having demonstrated prototypes that meet our science requirements under Mars conditions in the Danish Mars Wind Tunnel. We will harden our ultrasonic transducers against shock and vibe, and thermal extremes and cycling. We will also optimize the design of the sensor head (“spider”) to minimize wind shadowing, optimize the electronics to reduce mass and power while using rad-hard parts, and migrate the software to flight requirements. Finally, we will validate the instrument to TRL6 with performance tests in a representative martian environment, thermal extreme and thermal cycling tests, and shock and vibe tests. These will place the Mars Sonic Anemometer in position to be included on any upcoming Mars surface mission, or with small adaptations, mission opportunities at Venus, Earth, Saturn, Uranus or Neptune as discussed above.