Mars and the ESA Science Programme - the case for Mars polar science

Thomas, Nicolas; Becerra, P.; Smith, I. B. (2022). Mars and the ESA Science Programme - the case for Mars polar science. Experimental astronomy, 54(2-3), pp. 677-693. Springer 10.1007/s10686-021-09760-6

Preview

Text Thomas2021_Article_MarsAndTheESAScienceProgramme-.pdf - Published Version Available under License Creative Commons: Attribution (CC-BY). Download (3MB) | Preview

Current plans within the European Space Agency (ESA) for the future investigation of Mars (after the ExoMars programme) are centred around participation in the Mars Sample Return (MSR) programme led by NASA. This programme is housed within the Human and Robotic Exploration (HRE) Directorate of ESA. This White Paper, in response to the Voyage 2050 call, focuses on the important scientific objectives for the investigation of Mars outside the present HRE planning. The achievement of these objectives by Science Directorate missions is entirely consistent with ESA’s Science Programme. We illustrate this with a theme centred around the study of the Martian polar caps and the investigation of recent (Amazonian) climate change produced by known oscillations in Mars’ orbital parameters. Deciphering the record of climate contained within the polar caps would allow us to learn about the climatic evolution of another planet over the past few to hundreds of millions of years, and also addresses the more general goal of investigating volatile-related dynamic processes in the Solar System.

Interest & Impact

Downloads

52 since deposited on 21 Jul 2021
29 in the past 12 months

Citations

5 Citations in Web of Science ®
6 Citations in Scopus

Search

in Google Scholar™

Services

Actions (login required)

Edit item

Actions (login required)

Edit item