Following a call in August 2014, ESA selected in June 2015 three candidates for the “M4” medium-class mission, for a launch opportunity in 2025 (ARIEL, THOR and XIPE).
The three missions have been studied as candidates for the M4 launch opportunity.
The mission concepts have completed their Assessment Phase study activities, and a recommendation about which concept should be carried forward for Definition Phase activities will be issued under the responsibility of the Advisory Structure to the ESA Science Programme. The present plan is to submit to the Science Programme Committee the proposal to select one mission in November 2017.
In view of this selection, the three M4 mission concepts ARIEL, THOR, and XIPE will be presented to the scientific community on 3 July 2017, at the Institut Océanographique de Paris. The meeting is foreseen to start at 13:00 and will end at 18:00.
All interested parties (scientific community, industry, national funding agencies, etc.) are invited to attend this event. Practical details and logistic information are available at the links in the right-hand menu.
The Assessment Study Reports (also known as the Yellow Books) for the three candidates (ARIEL, THOR and XIPE) are available to download – see the right-hand menu.