... Scientific goals . ... STUDY OF THE MARTIAN SURFACE COMPOSITION AND ITS PHYSICAL PROPERTIES . Main scientific objectives: . spectrophotometry of the planet in absorption bands of some rocks that may exist on the Martian surface in order to determine the surface composition; . study of the nature of aerosols by measuring spectral and angular distributions off brightness both above the planetary limb and of certain cloud-covered areas; . ... Main characteristics: . Spectral range . ...

... The low energy plasma composition spectrometer AMEI-2 is built to be able to find in the low energy range of the phase space (E, q, j) and separate the fluxes of the major ion species in the magnetotail - H+, He++, He+ and O+, and analyse their energy and angular distributions. ... Electrostatic angular scanning in one direction and the use of the spin of the satellite to sample the other angle give the ability to measure 2-D distributions for each ion specie several times per spin. ...

Pioneer 10 & 11 . USA Jupiter/Saturn Flyby & Interstellar Probe . ... Pioneer 10 was launched on 2 March 1972, on top of an Atlas/Centaur/TE364-4 launch vehicle. ... This made Pioneer the fastest manmade object to leave the Earth, fast enough to pass the Moon in 11 hours and to cross the Mars orbit, about 80 million kilometers away, in just 12 weeks. ... Following its encounter with Jupiter, Pioneer 10 is exploring the outer regions of our Solar System, studying energetic particles from our Sun . ...