Mercury Lander: Planetary Mission Concept Study for the 2023-2032 Decadal Survey

Seismology in the Solar System

“…the sun never rises more than 2 arcminutes above horizon, are more stable below 150 K. Since the low temperatures of the night can be relatively easily accommodated by electric heaters, most proposed missions target landing after sunset and limit the mission duration to a single night. Ernst et al (2021) present a mission concept to study the geology around an equatorial landing site over the course of a single Mercury night (88 Earth days) in 2045. The mission study includes an accelerometer for seismic studies.…”