A close-up of the test section can be seen here.
The design adopted is shown schematically here:
All past lander missions to Mars, and most proposed missions, have carried
anemometers to measure wind speed & direction near the surface. Oxford
University’s Low
Density Wind Tunnel (LDWT) is being used to create a facility in which
anemometers can be tested and calibrated in Martian surface conditions,
namely a carbon dioxide atmosphere at pressures of 5-10 mbar, temperatures
of 160-300 K, and flow speeds ranging from 0.5 m/s to 30 m/s. The
primary determination of wind speed is obtained from orifice plates
which measure the flow rate into the wind tunnel. The flow field is
characterised using a pitot tube on a translation stage. This
facility was developed for testing and calibration of a wind sensor for the
Beagle2
mission (2003), and may also be used to calibrate sensors for the NetLander
mission (CNES, 2007).
C. F. Wilson, A.L. Camilletti, S.B. Calcutt & P.M. Ligrani, A wind
tunnel for the calibration of Mars wind sensors, Planetary and Space
Science, 2008, doi:10.1016/j.pss.2008.05.011.
A close-up of the test section can be seen here.
The design adopted is shown schematically here:
This facility has been designed in collaboration with the wind tunnel research group in Oxford University's Department of Engineering Science. It is located at the Osney Laboratory, near the train station in Oxford.
Links to other Martian Wind tunnels
For further details, please contact: