Using Thermal Simulation to Model the Effects of Wind on the Mars Curiosity Rover

The Centro de Astrobiologia (CAB), a joint center of Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas and the Instituto Nacional de Tecnica Aero espacial (CSIC-INTA), designed and built the weather monitoring station contributed by the Spanish government as part of the payload of the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) rover, Curiosity, which landed on Mars in August 2012 (Figure 1).

Called the remote environmental monitoring station (REMS), the collection of weather-monitoring instruments was intended to operate on Mars for the equivalent of two Earth years, acquiring data on Mars' wind speed and direction, air and ground temperature, atmospheric humidity, pressure, and UV irradiation, from the surface of the crater on Gale Mountain (Figure 2). These measurements enabled analysis of the day-to-night cycle and seasonal environmental variations and provided the first measurements of UV radiation incident on the Martian surface.