The Plasma Wave System on Phobos

Abstract

The Phobos-2 spacecraft has been inserted in a Mars orbit to rendezvous with one of the two Martian satellites, Phobos, in early 1989. The Plasma Wave System (PWS) is part of the scientific payload; this instrument will record, for the first time in a Martian environment, the spectra of natural waves with an electric dipole in the frequency range 0-150 kHz and measure the ionospheric plasma density distribution with a Langmuir probe. In-flight data show that the system performs well and that PWS should meet its scientific goals.