MARSIS: Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionosphere Sounding

MARSIS (Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionosphere Sounding) is a low
frequency, nadir-looking pulse limited radar sounder and altimeter with ground
penetration capabilities, which uses synthetic aperture techniques and a secondary
receiving antenna to isolate subsurface reflections.

MARSIS will send low frequency radio waves (1.3-5.5 MHz) towards the planet from a
40 m long antenna which will be unfurled after the spacecraft goes into orbit. The entire
instrument including antenna and data processing unit weighs about 12 kg.

MARSIS functions by transmitting a linear frequency modulated chirp using a nadir-

looking dipole antenna. The return signal is received on both the dipole antenna and a
secondary monopole antenna oriented along the nadir axis. The secondary antenna
has a null in the nadir direction and receives primarily the off-nadir surface reflections.
This signal can be subtracted from the main received signal during ground processing
to reduce surface clutter. Both received signals are down converted to range offset
video signals before being passed to an analogue to digital converter. The resultant
data are formatted by the MARSIS on-board digital processor and passed to the
spacecraft for transmission to Earth.

Sounding the subsurface

The radio waves will be reflected from any surface they encounter. For most, this will
be the surface of Mars. But because of the low frequency, a significant fraction will
travel through the crust to encounter further interfaces between layers of different
material. Consequently, a layer containing liquid water should generate a radar echo.
The presence of weaker signals after the first strong surface return will enable to detect
subsurface interfaces, while the time delay between the two signals will enable to
measure the depth of the interfaces.

By sending two different frequencies at the same time and analysing the echoes
generated, MARSIS will be able to extract information on the electrical properties of the
reflecting surface and hence its composition. The radio waves will be reflected at any
interface, not only that between rock and water, so MARSIS should reveal much about
the composition of the top 5 km of crust in general. It should, for example, pick out
layers of rock interspersed with ice, which are more likely to exist close to the Martian
surface than liquid water.

Ilustración 1. Principle of MARSIS operation

The best ground penetrating studies are made during night when the Martian
ionosphere is least active and when the spacecraft is less than 800 km from the
Martian surface.

Sounding the ionosphere

MARSIS ionospheric measurements employ both passive and active techniques.

The passive technique uses the thermal emission line at the local electron
plasma frequency to make highly accurate measurements of the local electron density.
The active technique uses radar signals (soundings) to measure the vertical range to
the ionospheric reflection point as a function of frequency.

During the day, sunlight ionises the upper atmosphere and long wavelength radio
waves bounce off it. Those that are reflected from the ionosphere can reveal much
about its structure. MARSIS will measure the electron density in the ionosphere and
hence quantify the effect of charged particles streaming out from the Sun on the upper
atmosphere. Such measurements will help to find out whether the unremitting
depredations of the solar wind over billions of years have stripped Mars of much of its
atmosphere.

Operation Modes

MARSIS operates in the following modes:

• Subsurface Sounding
• Active Ionospheric Sounding
• Receive Only
• Calibration

MARSIS will perform Subsurface Sounding when the spacecraft is less than 800 km
above the Martian surface. Over the nominal mission lifetime, extensive coverage at all
latitudes will be possible. To achieve this global coverage MARSIS supports both
dayside and nightside operations, although performance is maximised during the night
when the ionosphere plasma frequency drops significantly and the lower frequency
bands, which have greater ground penetration capabilities, can be used.

Active Ionospheric Sounding will be carried out during certain orbital passes when
the orbiter is less than 1200 km above the surface, in order to gather scientific data on
the Martian ionosphere.

Receive Only mode will mainly be used to characterise, from an electromagnetic point
of view, the environment in which MARSIS is working.

MARSIS will be operated in Calibration mode periodically throughout the operational

phase of the mission. The purpose of this mode is to acquire a limited amount of data
in an unprocessed format. The unprocessed data is used to determine the
characteristics of the adaptive matched filter computation that is used by the MARSIS
processor to compress the dispersed echo signals from the planet surface and
subsurface boundaries.

MARSIS Subsystems

MARSIS is composed of three subsystems:

 • the Antenna Subsystem (AS), including the primary dipole antenna for
transmission and reception of the sounder pulses, and the secondary
monopole antenna for surface-clutter echo reception only;
• the Radio Frequency Subsystem (RFS), including both the transmit channel
and the two receive channels for the dipole and monopole antennas,
respectively;
• the Digital Electronics Subsystem (DES), including the signal generator,
timing and control unit and the processing unit.

Signal
Transmitter
Generator Power and
control

Analog to

Spacecraft
Receiver Digital
Conversor
Dipole
Antenna
Simple sounder

Processor
Analog to
Receiver Digital
Conversor
Monopole
Antenna
Surface Cancellation Channel

Ilustración 2. MARSIS functional block diagram

The receivers and digital electronics are housed together within the spacecraft. The
transmitter electronics is housed in a separate box, also within the spacecraft.

The main transmit and receive antenna is a deployable dipole with two 20 metre
elements, arranged so that its peak gain is in the spacecraft nadir direction. The clutter
cancellation antenna is a 7 metre long deployable monopole, arranged so that its gain
null is in the spacecraft nadir direction. The clutter cancellation antenna is equipped
with a low-noise preamplifier. Due to severe limitations on the available mass, the
antennas are of a novel design, each consisting of a folding composite tube that
supports a pair of wires constituting the conductive element of the antenna. The
antennas are deployed by pyrotechnic release mechanisms.

The transmitter is connected to the primary antenna through an impedance matching

network. The nominal operating frequency of the transmitter in the subsurface sounder
modes is 1.3 to 5.5 MHz, with an instantaneous bandwidth of 1 MHz. For ionospheric
sounding, the operating frequency varies between 0.1 and 5.4 MHz. The transmitter
takes the chirp generated by the receiver/local oscillator electronics and amplifies it,
delivering 5 W of RF power to the antenna.

The receiver electronics consists of the chirp generator/local oscillator and a dual
channel receiver that down converts the received echoes. Each receiver channel has a
selectable bandpass filter, a mixer, an amplifier chain, low-pass filtering and an
analogue to digital converter. The output of the analogue to digital converters is passed
to the digital electronics for processing prior to being sent to the ground station via the
spacecraft's on-board data handling system.
The digital electronics is responsible for:

• Synthesis of the transmit chirp and local oscillator signals

• Control of the transmitter and receivers
• Processing of the digital data from the receivers
• Receipt and execution of telecommands from the spacecraft
• Transmission of formatted science, event and housekeeping data to the
spacecraft.

MARSIS subsurface sounding mode characteristics

Centre frequency (MHz) 1.8 3.0 4.0 5.0
Bandwidth (MHz) 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0
Radiated power (W) 1.5 5.0 5.0 5.0
Transmit pulse width (µs) 250 or 30 in mode SS5
Pulse repetition rate (s-1) 130
Minimum science data rate (kbps) 18
Maximum science data rate (kbps) 75
MARSIS ionosphere sounding mode characteristics
Start frequency (kHz) 100
End frequency (MHz) 5.4
Number of frequencies 160
Transmit pulse length (µS) 91.43
Frequency step (kHz) 10.937
-1
Pulse repetition rate (s ) 130
Sweep duration (s) 7.38
Other parameters
Receive window size per channel (baseline)(µs) 350
Analog to digital conversion rate (MHz) 2.8
Analog to digital conversion (bit) 8
Max. no. simultaneous frequencies 2
Radiation Gain (dB) 2.1
Max data volume daily (Mbit) 285
Mass (Kg) 17
Max Power (includiong margins) (W) 64.5
Tabla 1. Principal parameters of MARSIS