1998-09-03
PRESS RELEASE
Planet Mars Workshop
2-3 September, Swedish Institute of Space Physics, Kiruna, Sweden
Some thirty researchers from ten countries gathered in Kiruna to discuss the results of research on the atmosphere of Mars and its interaction with solar wind. Model calculations and observations were compared in order to give a better basis for the future research into processes in the solar system to be performed by institutions such as the Swedish Institute of Space Physics (IRF) in Kiruna.
Prior to the summer, IRF was informed that the experiment which the Kiruna group had suggested for the European Space Agency's space project Mars Express had been accepted. So when Mars Express is sent up in the year 2003, one of the seven scientific instruments on board will be Swedish. Mars Express will explore the planet's surface, atmosphere and plasma-physical processes.
The measuring instruments which IRF built for the Russian space probes Phobos 1 and 2 were sent up in 1988 and gave very interesting and unique data. Much effort has been put into studies of the planet itself, existence of water, the possibilities of life on Mars and the feasibility of sending manned spacecraft there. Since the Phobos project, however, no detailed measurements of the planet's surroundings have been undertaken. There were plans to do this with Mars-96, a project in the Russian space programme with IRF instruments on board, but the launch of the sounding rocket in November 1996 failed. Mars Express will to some extent perform the investigations which were planned for Mars-96.
IRF also has an instrument on Nozomi (Planet-B), a Japanese spacecraft to Mars which was launched in July this year. That rocket will be in orbit round the earth until December and will reach Mars in October next year. Tests were carried out last week and we received the first data from the instrument. Everything seems to be functioning very well.
More information: (E-mail: Olle Norberg
On IRF's instrument on board Nozomi
On IRF Kiruna
On Mars Express