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Measuring the wind on Mars
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06/10/2008
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A chip designed by researchers at the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC) and manufactured completely in Spain will be used to measure the wind on Mars.
The chip is the key piece of the anemometer on a weather monitoring station for NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) rover, planned for launch later in 2009.
The MSL rover will determine whether Mars is or has been able to support any kind of life. Among its instruments is the Rover Environment Monitoring Station (REMS), which will measure air and ground temperature, atmospheric pressure, ultraviolet radiation and humidity, in addition to wind speed and direction.
Each chip is 1.5mm thick and includes three temperature sensitive platinum components: One measures the temperature of the chip, the second heats it to some 25ºC above ambient temperature and the third controls the characteristics of the wind sensor.
The approach is called hot wire anemometry. According to Luis Castañer, coordinator of the UPC Micro and Nano Technologies Research Group, wind speed has traditionally been measured by heating a wire, which was then cooled by air. “In the case of the chip, the hot point is not a wire, but a piece of silicon heated by a fine film that covers it and acts as the resistance to heat”, he said.
The temperature is measured by a fifth chip, identical to the other four.
Wind speed can be measured in 2d, but the speed in 3d can be deduced by using as many plates as necessary. The REMS weather monitoring station uses six wind sensors, with five chips each, located on the ends of two booms and separated by an angle of 120°.
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Author
Graham Pitcher
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