The development of a space instrument such as MEDA (Mars Environmental Dynamics Analyzer), parts having been tested on the WindSled in the last Antarctica expedition campaign, has taken a great step forward. The component parts developed independently by different worldwide institutions, must be assembled at their final location in a very complex Martian mecano while being connected to each other. “It is a process during which the pressure is maximum, because the time to launch is shortening, and there is practically no margin for error,” comments Dr. José Antonio Rodríguez Manfredi, engineer at the Center for Astrobiology, CAB, and principal investigator for MEDA .
In this case, it has already been integrated into the “brain” rover of the instrument, called the Instrument Control Unit (ICU), and designed by Airbus-Tres Cantos. The MEDA engineering team verified that the results of the tests carried out were as expected. The next step will be the integration, first mechanically and then electronically, of all the sensors that make up MEDA, to be placed on the Mars 2020 mission vehicle.
The MEDA instrument will be in charge of the environmental and dust characterization on the surface, registering all these magnitudes uninterruptedly throughout the duration of the mission. The sensors are distributed on the deck and the mast of the vehicle, and will perform their operations in coordination with the rest of the instruments that are also part of the mission. Specifically, MEDA consists of seven sensors to measure wind direction and speed, relative humidity, atmospheric pressure, solar ultraviolet, infrared radiation and visible incidents, properties of dust in suspension, temperature of soil and air. Additionally, a placed camera to take images of the Martian sky (including the clouds). Some of these sensors went to Antarctica, obtaining the expected results.
If all goes well, MEDA will join the two environmental stations that the CAB and the CDTI already have operating on Mars. These are REMS (Rover Environmental Monitoring Station) that arrived on the red planet in 2012 aboard the Curiosity rover; and TWINS (Temperature and Wind Sensors for InSight mission) that landed on Mars last November.