7,1,8,1,1,10,- 1Rheinisches Institut für Umweltforschung an der Universität zu Köln, Abteilung Planetenforschung, Köln, Germany (martin.paetzold@uni-koeln.de)
- 2Bundeswehr University Munich, Institute of Space Technology and Space Applications, Munich, 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 undergoing its Phase A study with the European Space Agency (ESA), is a candidate for the Medium-class (M7) program. Its primary objective is to study the complex interactions between Mars' magnetosphere, ionosphere, and thermosphere—commonly referred to as MIT coupling.
The mission features identical payloads aboard twin spacecraft named Henri and Marguerite. These spacecraft will conduct regular mutual occultations while following elliptical orbits that share a common pericenter at an altitude of 250 km but have distinct apocenters at 3,000 km and 10,000 km, respectively.
Using software-defined radios (SDRs) transmitting simultaneously at 500 MHz and 2300 MHz, the MaCro instrument, a crosslink radio science instrument, will probe the Martian ionosphere and neutral atmosphere. This approach will enable the retrieval of vertical profiles of electron density in the ionosphere, as well as temperature, pressure, and neutral number density profiles in the neutral atmosphere as well as the total lateral electron content (LTEC) and the vertical electron content (VTEC)—across nearly all local times and solar zenith angles (SZA). The orbit geometry uniquely allows coverage of SZAs less than 50° and greater than 140°, which was previously unachievable with conventional Earth-based occultation techniques, such as those used by Mars Express MaRS.
Over the course of the primary mission phase (lasting one Martian year), approximately 2,500 mutual occultation events are expected to be recorded. The radio link operates in a one-way mode, with either Henri or Marguerite serving as the transmitter while the other receives the signal in open-loop mode. Onboard pre-processing of the data will reduce the volume of information transmitted back to Earth via telemetry.
How to cite: Pätzold, M., Andert, T., Vorderobermeier, T., Tellmann, 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 MaCro Instrument Aboard M-MATISSE: Scientific Objectives and Operational Concepts, EPSC-DPS Joint Meeting 2025, Helsinki, Finland, 7–12 Sep 2025, EPSC-DPS2025-1499, https://doi.org/10.5194/epsc-dps2025-1499, 2025.
