We have built a Mars environmental simulation chamber, designed to test new electromechanical devices and instruments that could be used in space missions. We have developed this environmental system aiming at validating the meteorological station Rover Environment Monitoring Station of NASA's Mars Science Laboratory mission currently installed on Curiosity rover. The vacuum chamber has been built following a modular configuration and operates at pressures ranging from 1000 to 10−6 mbars, and it is possible to control the gas composition (the atmosphere) within this pressure range. The device (or sample) under study can be irradiated by an ultraviolet source and its temperature can be controlled in the range from 108 to 423 K. As an important improvement with respect to other simulation chambers, the atmospheric gas into the experimental chamber is cooled at the walls by the use of liquid-nitrogen heat exchangers. This chamber incorporates a dust generation mechanism designed to study Martian-dust deposition while modifying the conditions of temperature, and UV irradiated.
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March 2014
Research Article|
March 25 2014
Mimicking Mars: A vacuum simulation chamber for testing environmental instrumentation for Mars exploration
J. M. Sobrado;
J. M. Sobrado
a)
1
Centro de Astrobiología (CAB)
, INTA-CSIC, Torrejón de Ardoz, 28850 Madrid, Spain
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J. Martín-Soler;
J. Martín-Soler
1
Centro de Astrobiología (CAB)
, INTA-CSIC, Torrejón de Ardoz, 28850 Madrid, Spain
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J. A. Martín-Gago
J. A. Martín-Gago
1
Centro de Astrobiología (CAB)
, INTA-CSIC, Torrejón de Ardoz, 28850 Madrid, Spain
2
Instituto de Ciencias de Materiales de Madrid (ICMM-CSIC)
, Cantoblanco, 28049 Madrid, Spain
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a)
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed. Electronic mail: sobradovj@inta.es
Rev. Sci. Instrum. 85, 035111 (2014)
Article history
Received:
December 05 2013
Accepted:
March 03 2014
Citation
J. M. Sobrado, J. Martín-Soler, J. A. Martín-Gago; Mimicking Mars: A vacuum simulation chamber for testing environmental instrumentation for Mars exploration. Rev. Sci. Instrum. 1 March 2014; 85 (3): 035111. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4868592
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