Environmental Monitoring Station for Mars Science Laboratory

The Viking Landers measured pressure, wind speed and direction, and air temperature with a small boom [1]. Mars Pathfinder had the Atmospheric Structure Instrument on its lander and recorded pressure, air temperature and wind direction [2]. MSL has environment sensors within its payload as well: it is the REMS (Rover Environmental Monitoring Station) instrument, which is in charge of recording pressure, humidity, air and ground temperature, wind speed and direction and UV radiation at the rover level. A difference with other missions is that MSL is a rover and, therefore, the instrument is part of a complex mechanical architecture that entails many design constraints that have been implemented on the REMS design. This work describes the instrument and operation, emphasizing the problems found in the development phase and the potential impact on science.