Mars Ice Access Mission is a key robotic precursor mission to future human exploration planning. It is part of ESA’s Exploration Programme, named “Terrae Novae”, encompassing all ESA’s human and robotic activities related to the exploration and utilisation of Earth Orbit, Moon and Mars. The “Mars Ice Access Mission Study” is a Pre-Phase A level study. The objective of the study was to propose a preliminary design of a mission aiming to:

• Extract water-ice from Mars sub-surface down to a depth of 3 meters
• Demonstrate the capacity to produce a certain amount of consumables (Oxygen and Methane) This study has taken place between September 2022 and September 2023.

The study has involved a consortium led by Airbus (in charge of Mission analyses, Carrier Module design and Lander platform design) and including:

• ArianeGroup (Entry Vehicle design),
• Leonardo (Drill Module design and Sample Processing and Distribution Module design)
• Open University (Demo Resource Utilisation Module design).