In late 2007 (or 2009)

CNES CNES () is the French national space agency. Headquartered in central Paris, the agency is overseen by the ministries of the Armed Forces, Economy and Finance and Higher Education, Research and Innovation. It operates from the Toulouse Spac ...

(the French Space Agency) and ESA ( the European Space Agency) had planned to send a

remote sensing Remote sensing is the acquisition of information about an physical object, object or phenomenon without making physical contact with the object, in contrast to in situ or on-site observation. The term is applied especially to acquiring inform ...

orbiter and four small Netlanders to

Mars Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun. It is also known as the "Red Planet", because of its orange-red appearance. Mars is a desert-like rocky planet with a tenuous carbon dioxide () atmosphere. At the average surface level the atmosph ...

. They planned to land them in four locations. The CNES and ESA cancelled this mission because it was too expensive; both agencies planned to send other orbiters and landers for missions like

ExoMars ExoMars (Exobiology on Mars) is an astrobiology programme of the European Space Agency (ESA). The goals of ExoMars are to search for signs of past life on Mars, investigate how the Martian water and geochemical environment varies, investigate ...

. The Landers' mission was to take pictures of the landing site and explore Mars' internal surface and atmosphere. Each of the four landers was to carry instruments for the following measurements: * Seismometer, IPG, France * Panoramic camera, DLR, Germany * Atmospheric sensors, FMI, Finland * Atmospheric electricity sensor, CETP, France * geodesic and ionospheric measurements, GRGS, France * Soil properties measurements,

University of Münster The University of Münster (, until 2023 , WWU) is a public research university located in the city of Münster, North Rhine-Westphalia in Germany. With more than 43,000 students and over 120 fields of study in 15 departments, it is Germany's ...

, Germany * Ground Penetrating Radar, CETP, France *

Magnetometer A magnetometer is a device that measures magnetic field or magnetic dipole moment. Different types of magnetometers measure the direction, strength, or relative change of a magnetic field at a particular location. A compass is one such device, ...

, CETP, France * Microphone,

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

, US The Orbiter's mission was to take pictures from orbit, explore Mars' atmosphere and relay information and images from the Netlanders. The MetNet multi-lander mission to Mars is based on the legacy of NetLander. MetNet is scheduled for launches in 2011–2019. The NetLander design has been examined as the basis for a small Solar System body lander, such as a comet.Ulamec & Biele – From the Rosetta Lander Philae to an Asteroid Hipper: Lander concepts for small bodies missions
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References

See also