MarsTwin: an M-mission to Mars with two geophysical laboratories

Abstract

Mars-Twin - a mission proposed for the running ESA cosmic vision M call - if selected it will be the first European mission to focus on interior processes and the early evolution of Mars, providing essential constraints for models of the thermal, geochemical, and geologic evolution of Mars and for a better understanding of SNC meteorites and future samples from Mars. Our fundamental understanding of the interior of the Earth comes from geophysics, geodesy, geochemistry, geomagnetism, and petrology. For geophysics, seismology, geodesy, magnetic field measurements, and surface heat flow have revealed the basic internal layering of the Earth, its thermal structure, its gross compositional stratification, as well as significant lateral variations in these quantities. The landers will also provide meteorological stations to monitor the Martian meteorology and climate and to obtain new measurements in the Martian boundary layer. The Mars-Twin mission will fill a longstanding gap in the scientific exploration of the solar system by performing an in-situ investigation of the interior of an Earth-like planet other than our own. Mars-Twin will provide unique and critical information about the fundamental processes of terrestrial planet formation and evolution. This investigation has been ranked as a high priority in virtually every set of European, US and international high-level planetary science recommendations for the past 30 years, and the objectives for the Mars-Twin mission are derived directly from these recommendations. In addition to geophysics, the mission will provide important constraints for the Astrobiology of Mars by helping to understand why Mars fails to have a magnetic field, by helping to understand the evolution of the climate, and by providing a limit to the chemoautrophic biosphere through a measurement of the heat flow. The paper will also address the synergy between the lander instruments and the possible orbiter instruments.