Italian participation in the Mars exploration program Original Research Article

Recently agreements have been signed between the Italian Space Agency (ASI) and ESA and NASA for the exploration of Mars. These agreements initiate the participation of the Italian scientific community as well as the Italian industrial community in the international program to explore Mars. ASI and NASA have agreed to co-operate in a long-term systematic program of robotic exploration of Mars sustained by a series of missions to Mars in support of their respective strategic goals. The Mars Surveyor Program is a sustained series of missions to Mars, each of which will provide important focused scientific results. ASI is expecting to participate in the future missions with the provision of two sub-systems: a subsurface drill and a scientific package. The drill will be capable of drilling and collecting several samples and delivering them to instruments located within a scientific package fixed on a landed platform. ASI is also providing scientific instruments placed on a scientific package (IPSE) fixed with on the lander platform. The goals of the investigations are to study physical and mineralogical properties of bulk soil and dust (atmospheric and surface) as well as geochemical, structural, radiation and geophysical properties of subsurface materials to a depth of 0.5 meters.