NASA’s Mars Exploration NEX-SAG has identified atmospheric wind measurements as key science objective for a future Mars orbiter. Only few direct observations of Mars winds exist, which leaves many basic questions unanswered. We previously developed a prototype of the MARLI lidar to measure the height-resolved wind and aerosol profiles continuously from orbit. Although MARLI works well and is practical for space, its mass and power are large for NASA’s new emphasis on smaller Mars missions. We recently developed a new approach for a smaller version called Mini-MARLI. The lidar approach is similar to MARLI’s, but it uses a smaller lower mass laser with much better power efficiency and more sensitive detectors. These allow improved wind measurements with a lidar that has lower mass and power. Details of the lidar and its measurements will be shown in the presentation.