Consideration on the planned use of a scientific balance on Mars: Part I. Gravimetric sorption experiment

Abstract

Future European and American Missions to Mars will be focussed on the search for life, and of water, as a precondition for the existence of complex organisms. Besides the polar ice caps of carbon dioxide and water, in the upper few meters of the Martian surface, water and ice bound to the soil surface, is expected. Therefore we propose to investigate the storing capability of Martian soil in situ. This planned quite new type of investigation makes use for the first time of a balance at a celestial body outside Earth.