The Mercury Lander Mission Concept Study: Enabling Transformative Science from the Surface of the Inner-Most Planet

As an end-member of rockyplanet formation, Mercury holds unique clues about the original distribution of elements in the earliest stages of Solar System development,as well as how planets form and evolve in close proximity to their host starsgenerally. This Mercury Lander mission concept enables in situ surface measurements that address several fundamental science questions raised by MESSENGER’s pioneering exploration of Mercury. Such measurements are needed to understand Mercury’s unique mineralogy and geo-chemistry; to characterize the structure of the planet’s proportionally massive core’s structure; to measure the planet’s active and ancient magnetic fields at the surface; to investigate the processes that alter the surface and produce the exosphere; and to provide groundtruth for current and future remote datasets