Solar energetic particle instrument SP@M for ESA M7 mission candidate M-MATISSE

M-MATISSE is one of the three mission candidates for the ESA M7 science mission call, all currently in Phase A with selection of the mission planned in the middle of 2026 and a possible launch at 2037. The M-MATISSE mission involves two spacecraft (Henri and Marguerite) with almost identical scientific payload to investigate the Mars plasma environment, its response to space weather, and its link with the atmosphere of the red planet. The proposed M-MATISSE configuration involves six scientific instruments on both spacecraft, two of them being consortia of several scientific sensors with common data processing units.

The Solar Particle at Mars (SP@M) experiment is a part of the Mars Ensemble of Particle Instruments (M-EPI) suite of three particle sensors. SP@M will study the energy and angular distributions of 30 keV to 1 MeV electrons and 30 keV to 10 MeV ions with 4 electron and 4 ion telescopes per spacecraft. This presentation will describe the design of SP@M as achieved at the end of Phase A, ongoing development activities including digital signal processing, electron-ion discrimination, and analysis of the performances of a prototype with numerical simulations and irradiation campaigns. The scientific objectives of SP@M will also be presented, including the added value of having for the first time at Mars two observatories of suprathermal and energetic particles.