Goal

WISDOM (Water Ice and Subsurface Deposit Observation on Mars) is a ground penetrating radar working in the UHF-frequency range from 500 MHz to 3 GHz and is part of the ESA (European Space Agency) and Roskosmos mission ExoMars 2022. WISDOM as part of the rover’s payload will start October 2022, most probably at the Russian launch base.

The main objective of this mission is to find proof of past or present life on Mars. Moreover, investigations regarding the existence of an atmosphere including oxide will be performed.

Amongst others, the WISDOM instruments as part of the rover discovering Mars’ surface will

• • characterize the surface as well as the subsoil of Mars
  • define regions on Mars which shall be observed in detail together with other experiments
  • take samples of Mars’ soil

The WISDOM electronic unit enabling the aforementioned tasks has been developed in a close Franco-German cooperation between LAP (Laboratoire d’Astrophysique de Bordeaux, France) and LATMOS (Laboratoire Atmosphères, Milieux, Observations Spatiales, France), building the WISDOM electronic unit, as well as TUD (University of Technology Dresden, Germany), responsible for the antenna design.

WISDOM is supported financially by CNES (Centre National d’études spatiales, France) and BMWi (Bundesministerium für Wirtschaft und Energie) in cooperation with DLR (German Aerospace Center).