What the heck is up with the second MARSIS boom?

[dunwitch]

I NEED THAT DATA! All I've heard is: "2nd MARSIS antenna to be deployed next week Green light for the deployment of the second MARSIS boom" on June 7; it's now July and no word. This is important stuff; what's up with MARSIS? Where's the water and how deep? How far down would we have to drill for it?

Sorry ... venting. I'm hanging on MARSIS's every data bit, and all I've heard is "Green light for boom deployment" from a month ago. If the spacecraft failed I'll bang my head on my keyboard and get on with life, but this endless waiting is killing me. If the boom is deployed, then MAP SOMETHING!

[Kurt A. Casby]

Hi!

According to Sky and Tel news bulletin:

"
On June 22nd, engineers working with the European Space Agency's Mars
Express orbiter completed the three-part deployment of the Mars Advanced
Radar for Subsurface and Ionosphere Sounding instrument (MARSIS). The
radar consists of two 20-meter-long (66 foot) booms and one 7-meter-long
boom. The instrument will undergo diagnostic testing until July 4th. After
that it will use radar to look for the signature of frozen ice as deep as
5 kilometers below the surface....
"

I wouldn't expect any data until after the 4th.

Regards,
Kurt

[dunwitch]

Nothing to worry about then ... thanks for the heads-up

[Gomanson]

Today I heard a month-old report about the MARSIS array. From what I understand it has been returning nominal data from the diagnostic testing. Nothing interesting yet though. And since it was activated about a year later than originally planned, there will be a delay until December when the really juicy data can be gathered. ESA has the thing on an extremely elliptical orbit so naturally the data gathered at it's closest pass with Mars will be the most precise and accurate. Another factor is that the ground penetrating radar can only be activated during the martian night because during the day the solar wind ionizes the atmosphere enough to distort the radar. Just so happens that the combo of those two factors won't be ideal until December. It also just so happens that ESA had only funded the project until December, so an extension of the moolah had to be lobbied for.

That's what I gathered from Linda Moultan Howe's report from a month ago aired on Coast to Coast AM. If any or all of that it wrong or poorly interpreted, please correct me.

[benhuset]

There was one report in italian media a week or so ago about data from MARIS they ran one 'unlabeled' graphic, that looked like
a screen from fish finder display.

no analysis was posted as to what you were looking at.

--Ben

[benhuset]

For up to date info on the Mars Express containing MARSIS see:

http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Mars_Express/index.html

you can also visit the MARSIS home page at:

http://www.marsis.com/


I couldn't find any 'data' on either site yet.

from a 'fan' site:

...Italian newspapers have published a version of http://www.geocities.com/p_ulivi/este_2 ... _28280.jpg which also includes topographic context. It appears to be a radar swath of the flank of a volcano. The poor resolution of newspaper images does not enable me to determine which volcano...

--Ben

[benhuset]

Mars radar experiment returns cryptic data

14:47 27 July 2005
NewScientist.com news service
Maggie McKee

MARSIS can only operate for about 20 minutes when the spacecraft comes closest to Mars
during its elliptical, six-hour orbit

A radar experiment designed to scout for water deep below the Martian surface is sending
back its first data - but scientists say it could take months to decipher.

The MARSIS radar antenna was fully deployed aboard Europe's Mars Express spacecraft on
17 June 2005. The instrument bounces radio pulses off the Red Planet and analyses the
time delay and strength of the pulses that return.

The longest wavelengths are expected to penetrate as far as five kilometres below the
surface, rebounding when they encounter a boundary between materials with different
electrical properties - such as rock and liquid water.

So far the experiment seems to be working - radio pulses that bounce off the surface itself
have acted as a rough altimeter, retracing the height of topological features measured by
previous missions. But MARSIS team members say much more data is needed to interpret
anything about the subsurface.

More at:

http://www.newscientistspace.com/articl ... -data.html




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