- 1Universität der Bundeswehr München, Space Technology & Space Applications, Space Technology, Germany
- 2University of Cologne; Rheinisches Institut fuer Umweltforschung (RIU), Department of Planetary Research, Cologne, Germany
- 3Dresden University of Technology, Dresden, Germany
- 4German Aerospace Center (DLR), Institute of Space Systems, Avionics Systems Department, Bremen, Germany
- 5The University of Tokyo, Graduate School of Frontier Science, Kashiwa, Chiba, Japan
- 6ISAS/JAXA, 3-1-1 Yoshinodai/Sag, Japan
- 7Sapienza University of Rome, Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Rome, Italy
- 8Nara Women's University, Nara, Japan
- 9TimeTech GmbH, Stuttgart, Germany
- 10University of Leicester, Leicester, LE1, United Kingdom
- 11LATMOS/IPSL, CNRS, Sorbonne Université, UVSQ, Paris, France
The M-MATISSE mission, currently in its Phase A study by the European Space Agency (ESA), is a Medium-class (M7) candidate that aims to explore the complex interactions between Mars' magnetosphere, ionosphere, and thermosphere (MIT coupling). This two-spacecraft mission, comprising identical payloads on board "Henry" and "Marguerite", will investigate how these interactions are influenced by space weather and the lower atmosphere. The spacecraft will follow different orbits with apocenters at 3,000 km and 10,000 km altitude, respectively, and pericenters at 250 km altitude, allowing for a comprehensive understanding of the Martian environment.
The MaCro instrument, which utilizes an inter-satellite radio link, will study occultation events in the Martian atmosphere, covering altitudes from 1,000 km to the surface, including the ionosphere and neutral atmosphere. Occultations occur when one spacecraft disappears behind the Martian disk as seen from the other spacecraft. Operating at two frequencies simultaneously—UHF and S-band—MaCro allows for a clear distinction between the ionospheric plasma and the neutral part of the atmosphere. The instrumentation setup consists of two software-defined transceivers (SDR) at UHF and S-band, stabilized by a highly stable oven-controlled crystal oscillator (OCXO) on each spacecraft. The observables include the shift of the carrier frequencies caused by the bending of the radio ray path in the atmosphere/ionosphere and the received signal power.
This presentation provides an overview of the MaCro instrument's technical concept and scientific objectives.
How to cite: Vorderobermeier, T., Andert, T., Paetzold, M., Tellman, S., Plettemeier, D., Budroweit, J., Imamura, T., Ando, H., Genova, A., Hahn, M., Noguchi, K., Oschlisniok, J., Peter, K., Schäfer, W., Sanchez-Cano, B., and Leblanc, F.: The M-MATISSE Crosslink Occultation Instrument MaCro, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-11879, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-11879, 2025.
