The MetNet vehicle: a lander to deploy environmental stations for local and global investigations of Mars

How to cite. Harri, A.-M., Pichkadze, K., Zeleny, L., Vazquez, L., Schmidt, W., Alexashkin, S., Korablev, O., Guerrero, H., Heilimo, J., Uspensky, M., Finchenko, V., Linkin, V., Arruego, I., Genzer, M., Lipatov, A., Polkko, J., Paton, M., Savijärvi, H., Haukka, H., Siili, T., Khovanskov, V., Ostesko, B., Poroshin, A., Diaz-Michelena, M., Siikonen, T., Palin, M., Vorontsov, V., Polyakov, A., Valero, F., Kemppinen, O., Leinonen, J., and Romero, P.: The MetNet vehicle: a lander to deploy environmental stations for local and global investigations of Mars, Geosci. Instrum. Method. Data Syst., 6, 103–124, https://doi.org/10.5194/gi-6-103-2017, 2017. nvestigations of global and related local phenomena on Mars such as atmospheric circulation patterns, boundary layer phenomena, water, dust and climatological cycles and investigations of the planetary interior would benefit from simultaneous, distributed in situ measurements. Practically, such an observation network would require low-mass landers, with a high packing density, so a large number of landers could be delivered to Mars with the minimum number of launchers. The Mars Network Lander (MetNet Lander; MNL), a small semi-hard lander/penetrator design with a payload mass fraction of approximately 17 %, has been developed, tested and prototyped. The MNL features an innovative Entry, Descent and Landing System (EDLS) that is based on inflatable structures. The EDLS is capable of decelerating the lander from interplanetary transfer trajectories down to a surface impact speed of 50–70 m s−1 with a deceleration of