Mercury Lander Mission Concept Study

The purpose of this study was to determine the feasibility of a landed mission to Mercury. It was conducted by the JHU/APL Space Department in partnership with Marshall Space Flight Center, Glen Research Center, and Steven Hauck from Case Western Reserve University. This was conducted as a concept maturity level (CML) 3 study focusing on feasibility trades and options for concepts with a goal of determining whether such a mission could be accomplished within a Principal Investigator (PI)-led mission cost cap (See Appendix B for CML definitions). The mission focuses on fundamental science questions that can be best, or only, achieved by surface operations such as determining Mercury''s bulk composition, the nature of the magnetic field, surface history, internal structure, and surface-solar wind interactions.