MiLi Horizon EU Project

The planet Mars has a complex climate, highly variable and only partly understood. The study of its atmosphere is of paramount importance for understanding the planet’s climate evolution and its influence on potential past and present life, as well as for identifying potential risks its constituents may entail for future human crews and support equipment. Atmospheric LIDARs, a class of instruments using laser light to study aerosol particle size and density in Earth’s atmosphere, could be used to also examine atmospheric dust and ice-based clouds on Mars. However, as LIDAR equipment are typically heavy and consume a lot of power they cannot be easily used aboard landers for planetary exploration. The EU-funded MiLi project plans to design a compact, low-power LIDAR that will provide the most precise characterisation of the suspended dust and clouds in the Martian atmosphere to date. This project has been funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them