Consisting of two probes launched by the Soviet Union to study Mars and its moons Phobos and Deimos. Phobos 1 was launched on 7 July 1988, and Phobos 2 on 12 July 1988. The objectives of the Phobos missions were to : conduct studies of the interplanetary environment; perform observations of the Sun; characterize the plasma environment in the Martian vicinity; conduct surface and atmospheric studies of Mars and study the surface composition of the Martian satellite Phobos.
Only Phobos-2 spacecraft has been inserted in a Mars orbit to rendezvous with the Martian naturel satellite, Phobos, in early 1989.
The Plasma Wave System (PWS), which is a part of the scientific payload (APV-F) was developed jointly by ESA (ESTEC), CNRS (LPC2E) and the UCLA Institute. PWS recorded for the first time, in a Martian environment, plasma and Electric Field Spectrum measurements during two Martian bow shock and measured the ionospheric plasma density distribution with a Langmuir probe.
You can access the data for this mission from the main menu (above) or directly from here. |
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Instruments in this mission
More than 25 instruments, were onboard the probes, here we give acces to the Plasma Wave System (PWS) instrument data.
News and useful links
More information, including mission descriptions, can be found at Russian space Website
Other links: NASA Website