The Mobile Analytic Laboratory Probe, or M.A.L.P., is a reconnaissance probe employed by Stargate Command and the Atlantis expedition to determine the conditions on the other side of an active wormhole before sending a team through, in order to make sure it's safe. This function was originally held by the F.R.E.D., but the M.A.L.P. was designed with far superior scanning and analytical equipment, allowing it to take a much more thorough reading of a planet.