This is in response to SDAi-Tech1's post below in the "Pardon my ignorance, but..." thread. At

http://www.habitablezone.com/space/messages/19212.html

SDAi-Tech1 wrote:
I don't think it [seismology] was considered a feasible goal on any lander for Mars.

Alex writes:
Perhaps you should tell that to the NetLander team who plan to launch seismometers aboard their series of Mars landers in 2007. Specifically, a French-supplied instrument named Very Broad Band Seismometer (SEIS VBB) and a JPL-supplied instrument named Short Period Seismometer (SEIS SP). Also, as Rob VG correctly noted that, to date, the only seismometers to have flown to Mars were on the Viking landers, where one failed to uncage. True, surface winds and other factors affecting the stability of the platform complicate matters; however, geophysicists are not short on proposals in getting seismology instruments back to Mars as our knowledge of the Martian interior is woefully inadequate and contains are fair amount of unconstrained variables.

Alex R. Blackwell
University of Hawaii