Russian lidar will monitor Mars dust

17 Jun 2002

A small, lightweight Russian laser-ranging device designed to measure dust and haze in the Martian atmosphere has been selected by NASA officials to fly aboard a U.S. Mars lander spacecraft due for launch in January 1999.

Known as the 1998 Mars Surveyor Lander, the mission will be the first ever sent to the polar regions of Mars, where it should encounter layers of icy terrain that represent a preserved record of the planet's climate history. The laser-ranging device, or lidar, will be provided to NASA by Dr. Vyacheslav Linkin of the Space Research Institute (IKI) of the Russian Academy of Science, under the sponsorship of the Russian Space Agency (RSA).