Thermal disturbances caused by lander shadowing and the measurability of the martian planetary heat flow |
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| Authors: | M Grott |
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| Institution: | Institute of Planetary Research, German Aerospace Center (DLR), Rutherfordstraße 2, 12489 Berlin, Germany |
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| Abstract: | A measurement of the martian planetary heat flow requires the determination of the subsurface temperature gradient, which is affected by surface insolation. I investigate the propagation of thermal disturbances caused by lander shadowing and derive measurement requirements for in situ heat flow experiments. I find that for short term measurements spanning 180 sol, a measurement depth of at least 2 m is needed to guarantee a stable thermal environment directly underneath the lander for Moon-like thermal conductivities of  . For extremely large conductivities of  , this depth needs to be increased to 4 m, but if the probe can be deployed outside the lander structure, the respective depths can be decreased by 1 m. For long term measurements spanning at least a full martian year heat flow perturbations are smaller than 5% below a depth of 3 m directly underneath the lander. Outside the lander structure, essentially unperturbed measurements may be conducted at depths of 0.5 and 1.5 m for thermal conductivities of 0.02 and  , respectively. |
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| Keywords: | Heat flow Mars Thermal waves Subsurface temperatures Planetary landers Instrumentation |
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