The NetLander very broadband seismometer

A network of very broadband seismometers will be carried by the Netlanders, a set of four landers developed by a European consortium, and are expected to land in mid-2008. Despite a low mass, the seismometers will have a sensitivity comparable to the present Very Broad Band Earth sensors, i.e., better than that of the past Apollo lunar seismometers. They will record the full range of seismic and gravity signals, from the expected quakes induced by the thermoelastic cooling of the lithosphere to the possible permanent excitation of the normal modes and tidal gravity perturbations. All these seismic signals will be able to constrain the structure of Mars' mantle and its discontinuities, as well as the state and size of the Martian core. (Author)