- Planets. So Mars stopped resembling Earth
- Exploration: the challenge of traveling to the red planet
A peculiar passenger embarked on March 23 on the Iberia flight from Madrid to Los Angeles. He had a reserved seat and traveled, naturally, with the seat belt fastened: a neatly sealed container with an extremely fragile load, a sensor that will measure solar radiation and Mars dust. It is part of the Spanish meteorological station for the robotic vehicle ( rover ) Mars2020 , which NASA will send to the red planet next summer.
In addition to a NASA escort, the sensor was guarded from the seats next to José Antonio Rodríguez Manfredi, of the Astrobiology Center (CAB / CSIC-INTA), and Víctor Apéstigue, of the National Institute of Aerospace Technology (INTA), two of the approximately 200 Spanish researchers who have participated in the development of the MED A station , a set of sensors designed to measure different meteorological aspects of the inhospitable planet to which space agencies intend to send humans within a few years.
In that same plane they also carried the wind sensor, while those that will measure the air temperature and infrared radiation were delivered to NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) last November. On the two flights to California the boarding process "was quite a movie", as Rodriguez Manfredi recalls.
«The containers are sealed because the sensors cannot be contaminated. They cannot be opened or passed through lightning , so, even if you carry all the documentation from the ministry and NASA and have previously notified it, you have to explain it to the Civil Guard so that it allows you not to go through security control. The agents guarded us to pass customs and, already on the plane, the company staff and the pilot also helped us in everything. They showed their surprise to know what we were wearing but also pride because Spain is contributing to the science that is done on Mars, ”recalls Rodriguez, principal investigator of MEDA (acronym for Mars Environmental Dynamics Analyzer). Its cost, details, has amounted to 15 million euros .
Our country has specialized in manufacturing components for robots that explore Mars, especially those that serve to study time. And it manufactures them for both NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA). They have been incorporated into Curiosity, the rover that has been working on Mars since 2012, and Insight, a robot that, without moving, investigates the interior of the planet and its earthquakes. When next year Mars2020 - from NASA - and ExoMars2020 - from ESA and Roscosmos, the Russian agency - are launched, there will be four Martian missions with Spanish technology.
Having a network of similar weather stations is very useful to know the dynamics of the planet, something very important to send people, ”says Rodríguez Manfredi. And it will be not only to survive there - since the safety of astronauts will depend to a large extent on the correct weather predictions - but also to arrive: "Knowing what the atmosphere is like is key to landing."
As the scientist recalls, the collaboration to make these Martian instruments began to forge towards the year 2004, when Juan Pérez Mercader directed the CAB. From each mission, he says, they learn lessons that help them incorporate improvements and correct mistakes. For example, some components of its first weather station, that of Curiosity (called REMS) were partially damaged during the attack: “The rockets mobilized a lot of dust and small stones, which damaged some wind detectors. In the simulations carried out, it was only contemplated that there was dust, ”he explains. Seven years later, the station is still working well despite that failure, but the following missions have been designed to avoid that setback.
The dust, he adds, is the main agent on Mars and the one that gives the most headaches to engineers (the humans who go will also have to deal with the harmful radiation, but that is a less important problem for robotic explorers). The dust affects the temperature and the weather in general, and from time to time there are storms that cover the red planet. The latter, particularly strong, could not survive the Opportunity rover, which stopped giving signals after 15 years working on Mars.
Radiation also influences studies on Martian habitability, as it can alter traces of life from the past that has been preserved in the rocks. «People often think that space technology is the most advanced, and it is according to what technologies, but there are others, such as that which has to do with electronics, where it goes with a decade of delay. The conditions of the space environment are so harsh that an iPhone, for example, would not last a month in space and on Mars, much less, ”says Ignacio Arruego, head of the area of engineering of space sensors at INTA, while we travel the facilities from the Madrid town of Torrejón de Ardoz where they are manufactured and tested throughout a slow and complex process.
Extreme temperatures and large differences between day and night are a challenge for the sensors, which are subjected to very hard tests. The laboratories seem to be operating rooms and the scientists, surgeons , both because of the clothing they wear and because of the neatness with which they have to treat these components. One of the most important aspects is to make sure that everything sent to Mars is sterilized to prevent any terrestrial bacteria that contaminates the planet from getting there.
A Víctor Apéstigue, responsible for the sensor of dust and solar radiation, we find him dressed in a protective suit from head to toe, checking if there are biological traces on some cards he has on the table: «With this ultraviolet light lamp we can see particles that we cannot see with the naked eye and clean them, ”he explains. To access this clean room you have to dress in the same way and put on a mask, a process that takes several minutes. In addition, before entering and leaving you have to go through an air shower . It is also mandatory to clean any object that is introduced, including mobiles: " Our skin and our hair have many biological components that we do not want to go to Mars," says Apéstigue.
But there is a type of contamination, molecular, more difficult to detect and very dangerous, because if layers accumulate in the instrument the signal can be lost. To find out if a component is contaminated, they take samples and grow them in the laboratory they have in the so-called planetary protection room . There is Miguel González, immersed in his biological crops. "After three days we have the results, so it is a very slow process ," he says as he shows how he does it. Not all bacteria are dangerous, so you have to know which ones to eliminate and which not: "We know that some are not going to survive the trip and those do not worry us."
In addition to making sure that the sensors are extremely clean and resistant, they should be as small and light as possible: " Any kilo of more than traveling in a spaceship costs a lot of money so everything has to be very compacted," says Arruego . The first one they did, a solar radiation sensor, weighed just over 114 grams.
"You have to do many tests to avoid that after a month you fail and be able to withstand the radiation of Mars, capable of degrading the components or generating a short circuit if a charged particle strikes," he explains while teaching a unit of ExoMars2020 replacement.
All components are calibrated at various stages of their development and subjected to vibration and vacuum tests . Javier Martínez shows us the vibration table where he makes sure that the sensor will survive the turbulent launch of the rocket and space travel. In another room they take care of the software that the instrument carries and the science it will do.
Of everything that is sent to space, a model is saved to be able to replicate it, in addition to making a spare unit in case during integration it must be replaced, says Arruego, principal investigator of several components of ExoMars, which are being integrated into Moscow. There is a Russian dictionary on the table in his office. And it is that in the development of these missions researchers from many universities and countries participate. The way Russians work, he says, is quite different from that of Europeans and Americans. A good training, he adds, for that future Martian manned mission that no country can do alone.
THE MARTIAN 'PART OF TIME'
- TEMPERATURE. Mars is a very cold planet. The maximum measured temperature is 7ºC. Near Ecuador, in the winter they reach -95ºC and at the poles, it ranges between -135 and -150ºC.
- PRESSURE AND WINDS. The pressure is 1% that of the Earth because the atmosphere is very thin. Although winds of up to 150 km / hour blow, they are perceived as a breeze.
- DUST AND RADIATION. Due to the strong wind, dust storms envelop Mars from time to time. The radiation is very harmful because of the weak atmosphere.
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