INSTRUMENTS FOR THE MAGNETIC-PROPERTIES EXPERIMENTS ON MARS PATHFINDER

The paper gives a description of two instruments, the Magnet Array (MA ) and the Tip Plate Magnet (TPM), that are part of the Magnetic Proper ties Experiments on board the U.S. Mars Pathfinder spacecraft, which w as launched 4 December 1996, and is expected to land on Mars 4 July 19 97. Both instruments consist of permanent magnets of varying strength that are designed to capture airborne dust. The instruments will be im aged by the Lander camera and the pictures transmitted to Earth. The p ictures are the data on which conclusions about the magnetic propertie s of the Martian dust will be based. As an addition to the description of the construction of the instruments, we give a brief discussion of the background for the interpretation of the results of the Magnetic Properties experiment. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reser ved.