ExoMars 2018 Surface Platform
Date: 26 November 2015
Satellite: ExoMars 2018
Depicts: Surface Science Platform
Copyright: Roscosmos/Lavochkin/IKI
Sketch of the ExoMars 2018 Surface Platform.
The surface platform, which is the responsibility of Roscosmos and the Space Research Institute of Russian Academy of Sciences (IKI), will remain stationary on the surface of Mars.
A set of sensors and instruments on the platform will investigate the surface environment at the landing site and will operate during its nominal mission lifetime of one Earth year.
The main science priorities for the surface platform are context imaging of the landing site, long-term climate monitoring, and atmospheric investigations.
Sensors and instruments on the platform will also be used to study the subsurface water distribution at the landing site, to investigate the exchange of volatiles between the atmosphere and the surface, to monitor the radiation environment and compare it with measurements made with the radiation dosimeter on the FREND instrument (on the ExoMars 2016 Trace Gas Orbiter), and to carry out geophysical investigations of the planet's internal structure.