ERZIA, a global designer and manufacturer of microwave and mm-wave amplifiers and integrated assemblies for high performance and high-reliability applications has proudly announced that their amplifiers are contributing to a successful mission and better understanding of the Martian atmosphere.
In 2014, ERZIA delivered RF Driver Amplifiers for the NOMAD instrument for installation on the Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) of the ExoMars mission. The mission was launched in 2016 and NOMAD began science operations in 2018. Now, in 2020, the NOMAD instrument, with ERZIA amplifiers on board, makes a great discovery in mars’ atmosphere.
Introduction
On 14th March 2016, a Proton-M rocket operated by Russia’s Roscosmos was launched from Baikonur in Kazakhstan. The upper stage of the rocket contained the ExoMars, composed of two main elements: the Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) and the Schiaparelli entry, descent, and landing demonstrator (EDM).
Both modules traveled to Mars together and separated 900,000 km from the planet. On October 19, 2016, the Schiaparelli module successfully entered Mars’ atmosphere, but unfortunately due to several failures, the unit was destroyed. This was a tremendous disappointment for the whole technical and scientific community that had worked extremely hard on this module. However, the good news was that the Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) module was still completely intact and provided hope for the possibility of a successful mission.
Trace Gas Orbiter
The ExoMars TGO conducted a series of aerobraking maneuvers in the atmosphere of Mars starting in March 2017 and reaching a final science orbit of 400 km on April 9, 2018.
The TGO is a hybrid science and telecommunication orbiter, that acts as a relay for communications between ground vehicles and earth. From a scientific point of view, it has the following instruments:
NOMAD Findings
ERZIA worked for several years to deliver two RF drivers for acousto optic tunable filters (AOTFs) to enable the NOMAD instrument. This science payload performs high-sensitivity orbital identification of atmospheric components, concentration, temperature, and cycles. It measures the sunlight reflected from the surface and atmosphere of the planet and analyzes the wavelengths received to determine the components of the atmosphere. The instrument began operations on April 9, 2018, and has an expected mission duration of seven years.
During its first two years of operation, the NOMAD instrument has already provided some good results. It has recorded the absence of methane in the atmosphere. Another result, recently published, confirms the direct observation of a green oxygen glow, which was predicted by models 40 years ago, but which had not been observed until now. In a few words, CO2 is broken up into carbon monoxide and oxygen. The resulting oxygen atoms glow in both visible and ultraviolet. These findings confirm the remarkably high sensitivity of the NOMAD instrument, which strongly supports scientists in better understanding Mars’ atmosphere and the processes and dynamics it holds.
Future
During its two years of operation, the NOMAD instrument has collected a tremendous amount of data and much more will be available by the end of the seven years of its estimated operation. They will share more data collection results and more knowledge about the atmosphere of our neighboring planet as the information becomes available.
ERZIA’s Contribution
ERZIA are proud to have contributed to the design of the NOMAD instrument. It was a challenge to design and manufacture the compact amplifiers that drive AOTFs with optimum RF output power and minimum harmonic content over a wide bandwidth while operating with the lowest possible energy consumption for a guaranteed long-term operation in space. They have confirmation that both amplifiers are performing as expected and are contributing to the successful performance of the NOMAD instrument.
ERZIA wishes the scientific community good fortune with their work as they continue to push NOMAD and the rest of the instruments to their limits to unveil all the possible secrets of the red planet. They eagerly await more good news and look forward to sharing future discoveries.
Click here to learn more about ERZIA and ExoMars mission.
