MARVEL - a missed opportunity? Options

[just-nick]

Looking at the instrument fit of the new Mars Trace Gas Orbiter - and in particular at MATMOS - I can't but notice a similarity to the MARVEL mission proposed back in 2002. There's precious little available about MARVEL online, but this description covers it quickly:

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/releases/2002/release_2002_219.cfm

MARVEL would have taken an occultation FTIR much like MATMOS along with a limb photography camera to spot dust. It also would have brought along a submillimeter spectrometer.

So here's the question I ask (discuss away...):

Given the recent popularity of Martian methane, was it a mistake not to fly MARVEL? How much further along would we be if it had flown in 2007 with an instrument suite that included an instrument so similar to the TGO's flagship tool? And does anyone have any more information about this mission?

Cheers,

--Nick

[mwolff]

The current MATMOS does not differ dramatically from that proposed in the Mars Scout Program (don't have details at my finger tips, sorry). As an aside, to label the current state of a methane detection on Mars as "definitive" is an overstatement. Its status is probably more accurately described using words such as "reported" and "controversial"...