Universidad Europea hosted a conference by José Antonio Rodríguez Manfredi, lead researcher on the Mars Environmental Dynamics Analyzer, known as MEDA, and the INTA Astrobiology Center. In it, the scientist gave a talk on the progress of NASA’s Mars 2020 mission, a program conducted with the Perseverance rover, which landed on the surface of Mars in February and has conducted a mission since then to search for signs of ancient life and collect rock samples.
One of the objectives of the mission is to start up the Mars environmental dynamics analyzer: MEDA. It also takes meteorological measurements that include wind speed and direction, temperature, and humidity, in addition to measuring the amount and size of dust particles in the Martian atmosphere.
According to researcher Rodríguez Manfredi, “MEDA will help us prepare for human exploration, providing daily weather reports and information on the radiation and wind patterns on Mars.”