BALLOONS FOR THE EXPLORATION OF MARS

The Soviet mission to Mars envisioned in 1994 consists of two probes, each of which will carry a balloon described in the present paper. Since a balloon in the Martian atmosphere is driven essentially by thermal forces, the only possibility for a balloon flight is to stay at ceiling during the day and deposit half the mass of a guiderope during the night. The nominal caracteristics of the Mars-94 balloon are : volume 5,500 m3, flight ceiling during day 2 to 4 km above zero reference level, total floating mass 65.4 kg, gondola 15 kg, guide rope 13.5 kg. The presence of boulders, stones and dust on the surface of Mars are major impediments to the motion of an automatic rover. However the existence of an atmosphere provides the possibility of easy mobility. It is very hard to walk on Mars, it could be easy to fly there. Three modes can be envisioned for the use of balloons Data collection from instruments placed on board a long duration flight; Network deployment by the release of small packages; Rock collection.