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NOMAD - Nadir and Occultation for MArs Discovery on board EXOMARS

Name: NOMAD Spectrometer
Mission: Exomars 2016
Application: Atmosphere Monitoring
Life: Launched in 2016 – Operational

Instrument Description

NOMAD is one of the payloads on the EXOMARS Trace Gas Orbiter 2016, an ESA mission to Mars. NOMAD conducts a spectroscopic survey of Mars’ atmosphere in UV-visible (0,2 – 0,65 μm) and IR (2,2 – 4,3 μm) spectral ranges.

The NOMAD payload is composed of 3 channels: a solar occultation only channel (SO) operating in the infrared wavelength domain, an infrared channel capable of doing nadir, limb and also solar occultation observations (LNO) and finally an Ultraviolet and Visible channel (UVIS), which can work in all observation modes.

NOMAD was realised by an international consortium of institutes and companies with OIP as industrial prime contractor and Lambda-X [B] as subcontractor for the development of UVIS. In addition, OIP performed the optomechanical design and integration, alignment and testing of the instrument. The structure and electrical design was done by IASB-BIRA [B] and IAA [E] and the manufacturing of the electronics by TAS-ETCA [B].

The NOMAD development was started in 2012 and the launch took place early 2016. The project was performed for ESA-PRODEX and was funded by BELSPO. IASB-BIRA [B] is the principal investigator.

Mission

NOMAD is part of the ExoMars2016, a joint mission between the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos). The first mission of the ExoMars programme , scheduled to arrive at Mars in 2016, consists of a Trace Gas Orbiter (abbreviated as TGO) plus an Entry, Descent and landing demonstrator Module, known as Schiaparelli (abbreviated as EDM).

The main objectives of this mission are to search for evidence of methane and other trace atmospheric gases that could be signatures of active biological or geological processes and to test key technologies in preparation for ESA’s contribution to subsequent missions to Mars.

The Trace Gas Orbiter will accommodate scientific instruments for the detection of trace gases with an improved accuracy of three orders of magnitude compared to previous measurements from orbit and ground-based measurements. It will also provide new data for the study of the temporal and spatial evolution of trace gases in the Martian atmosphere, and for the location of their source regions.
The scientific payload operations of the Orbiter started in 2017 and are planned to last for a minimum of one Martian year (687 Earth days).

Schiaparelli – an entry, descent and landing demonstrator module – is a technology demonstration vehicle carried by the ExoMars TGO to demonstrate the capability of European industry to perform a controlled landing on the surface of Mars.

OIP’s Participation

OIP was responsible for the optical design and the Assembly, Integration and Verification (AIV) of the payload (Phase B/C/D).

OIP built an STM, a PFM and FS model in the frame of the contract.

Status

NOMAD Proto-Flight Model (PFM) was delivered to Thales Alenia Space (TAS), Cannes, France in May 2015. The integration on the TGO S/C was realized by NOMAD team in June 2015. After several environmental tests at S/C level, the TGO was shipped to the launch site end of 2015.
The TGO and in particular NOMAD survived the transport from Cannes to Baikonur Cosmodrome. This was demonstrated during Functional Checks and Alignment checks (January 2016), when NOMAD was declared ready for flight by ESA/TAS.

ExoMars2016 was launched on a Proton rocket (by International Launch Service ILS) and flew to Mars in a composite configuration. By taking advantage of the positioning of Earth and Mars the cruise phase could be limited to about 7 months, with the pair arriving at Mars in October 2016.

ExoMars 2016 Mission Phases Overview:

14 March 2016 → Launch
16 October 2016 → Schiaparelli – Trace Gas Orbiter separation
19 October 2016 → Trace Gas Orbiter insertion into Mars orbit
19 October 2016 → Schiaparelli enters Martian atmosphere but crash-lands on the target site
19-23 October 2016 → Schiaparelli science operations (not possible due to crash)
December 2016 → Trace Gas Orbiter changes inclination to science orbit (74°)
Jan 2017 – Dec 2017 → Aerobraking phase (TGO lowers its altitude to 400 km orbit)
December 2017 → Trace Gas Orbiter science operations begin.
December 2022 → End of Trace Gas Orbiter mission

Partners

NOMAD was built by an international consortium led by IASB-BIRA [B] as Principle Investigator and OIP Sensor Systems as Industrial Prime. Lambda-X [B] was subcontractor for the UV channel.
Project is funded by ESA/PRODEX.

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