To be launched as a piggyback payload with another Mars-bound mission in the July/August 2020 launch window (no partner has been announced yet), the Mars Terahertz Microsatellite is a joint venture of Japan’s National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT), and the University of Tokyo Intelligent Space Systems Laboratory (ISSL). The terahertz sensor will be sent to the surface of Mars to measure oxygen isotope ratios in the atmosphere to better understand the chemical reactions that resupply the Martian atmosphere with carbon dioxide.
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