Scientific Instrumentation Complex for the ExoMars-2022 Landing Platform

Abstract

Scientific objectives, instruments, and measurement program of the scientific instrumentation of the Kazachok stationary landing platform of the State Corporation Roscosmos and the European Space Agency (ESA) ExoMars-2022 project are presented. The scientific objectives of research on the landing platform included the long-term climate monitoring, the studies of the atmospheric composition, the mechanisms for dust lifting and related electrical phenomena, atmosphere–surface interactions, the subsurface water abundance, monitoring the radiation situation, and the study of Mars internal structure. To address these problems, 11 Russian and two European instruments with a total mass of 45 kg were built, tested and integrated into the spacecraft. These include a television camera system, meteorological complexes, a suite for studying dust and related electrical phenomena, optical spectrometers and an analytical complex for studying the atmospheric composition, a microwave radiometer, the neutron and gamma spectrometers for surface research, a seismometer, magnetometers and a Mars proper motion experiment to study its internal structure. Although the ExoMars-2022 project has been discontinued, the scientific objectives of the landing platform have not lost their relevance, and the technical solutions and developments implemented in scientific equipment are of interest and promising for further Mars exploration.