Knudsen was asked whom they should talk to implement such an experiment: Knudsen said that he would call Robert B. Hargraves, who had been Principal Investigator in the "Magnetic Properties Experiment" on the Viking mission. Thanks to Knudsen the development, of the magnet array experiment was granted to the University of Copenhagen. In 1993, Knudsen became part of NASA's Mars team and shortly thereafter Knudsen established the Danish Mars Group together with Lise Vistisen and Morten Bo Madsen. Knudsen had a part in the development of the Danish magnet experiment carried on the Mars Pathfinder mission in 1996 which was meant to examine the magnetic properties of the Martian dust. Later years In later years he became known as "Marsmanden" (the Martian) on account of his great enthusiasm towards recent missions to the planet Mars. In 2000 Knudsen was awarded the Order of the Dannebrog In 2002 he was appointed Honorary Professor of Planetary science at the University of Aarhus. At his death he was also Professor Emeritus at the Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen. In 2003 Jens Kerte wrote a biography of Knudsen entitled Mars og Marsmanden (Mars and the Martian) which includes three interviews with Knudsen himself. Knudsen was highly regarded by his students, and is subject of many colloquial songs written by the physics students at the University of Copenhagen which are still sung regularly. After Knudsen's death in 2005 the students wrote a more formal song in his honor, and to this date, the annual student's revue (end-of-year show) reserves the first printed ticket for Jens Martin. This same regard has led to the prize for most well-taught physics course at the Niels Bohr Institute to be named the Jens Martin Prize. See also 5427 Jensmartin, an asteroid named after Jens Martin Knudsen Danish Astronautical Society, a society that Jens Martin Knudsen has been appointed an honorary member of References External links Jens Martin Knudsen Online (Danish) 1930 births 2005 deaths 20th-century Danish astronomers Danish astrophysicists Danish physicists Danish science writers Danish schoolteachers Male biographers Members of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences University of Copenhagen alumni Academic staff of the University of Copenhagen 20th-century biographers 20th-century Danish male writers