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The objective of this study was to help define how to maintain and further develop European access to the surface of Mars, the major destination for European exploration, following the most recent approved and developed (or currently in development) missions (ExoMars 2016, ExoMars RSP).
Thales Alenia Space
The activity 'Small Satellite Missions to Mars (S2M2)' is an early-phase architecture study of a potential low-cost mission to Mars as further step in the Mars exploration roadmap developed by ESA.
A potential implementation from industry’s point of view was assessed, applying the strict design-to-cost philosophy by fostering strong reuse of an available OHB platform. Trade-offs were performed for assessing a low-cost mission profile targeting the programmatic constraints that were input to this study.
OHB System AG
The aim of this study was to investigate potential small mission architectures that would further ESA's exploration objectives at Mars post-Mars Sample Return (in the 2030s) or potentially in parallel with MSR (if sufficiently low cost).
Airbus
The Mars Surface Platform Capabilities Study aimed to provide ESA with an assessment of the state of the art in Mars lander technologies using ESA/European technologies with flight heritage. Airbus’ Mars lander experience is taken from the Beagle 2 probe launched in 2003 on board Mars Express.
The objectives of the study were to:
Airbus Defence &...
The focus of this study was the system-level assessment of potential small mission architectures that could operate at Mars in the 2030s, after or potentially in parallel with MSR mission.
In particular two cases were evaluated:
- Mission 1: Mars Communications Constellation (MCC), for supporting assets on the surface and providing science
- Mission 2: Mars Science Orbiter (MSO), a science-driven mission, remote sensing
Thales Alenia Space