Wide-Angle Optoelectronic Stereo Scanner
Wide-Angle Optoelectronic Stereo Scanner (WAOSS) is the name of the wide-angle stereo camera that was used in the Russian deep-space mission Mars 96 , among others . Two mutually complementary German cameras were installed on this mission, the WAOSS and the HRSC (High Resolution Stereo Camera).
The WAOSS camera was supposed to observe the planet Mars globally and over a large area with a ground resolution of a few hundred meters - i.e. topographical mapping 1: 500,000, the HRSC individual areas with a higher resolution.
In addition, WAOSS offers the possibility of tracking changes over time in the atmosphere and on the planet's surface; it should accommodate changes in all seasons within a Martian year, such as B. Clouds and dust storms. The camera weighs 7.1 kg, at an altitude of 300 km above Mars it had a ground resolution of 96 m with a scan width of 496,000 m.
The WAOSS was planned and designed in 1988 at the Institute for Cosmos Research (IKF) in Berlin-Adlershof, where the MKF 6 multispectral camera had already been developed for the manned spacecraft Soyuz 22 . It was later developed at the Institute for Space Sensor Technology of the German Aerospace Research Center ( DLR ) and tested in aircraft over ground. The data evaluation should take place at the Institute for Planetary Exploration in Berlin. The images and data obtained in Mars orbit should particularly benefit the following areas of science:
- Atmospheric physics and dynamics,
- Meteorology,
- Climatology,
- Photogrammetry and cartography,
- Mineralogy geology.
The WAOSS and HRSC development cost around 200 million DM in Germany.
After the successful start of the Mars mission with this camera and many other devices on November 16, 1996 with a Proton D2 rocket, the satellite reached Earth orbit; when changing course to Mars, however, there were still unexplained errors that led to the mission crashing.
See also: Mars Express , Beagle 2 , Mars Observer