Mars Subsoil Low Frequency Electromagnetic Sounding

In the last years several authors have suggested the application of electromagnetic (EM) methods to investigate Mars subsoil and search for water. To perforin the in situ operations, instruments based either on high frequency wave propagation methods (e.g. ground penetrating radars - GPR) or on low frequency inductive methods (passive and active time/frequency domain) can play an important role. In the paper the feasibility of a low frequency EM instrument for subsoil souding is discussed. The system is based on the Time Domain Electromagnetic Method (TDEM). In the paper, the operating principles of the method are presented and the possible implementation is described. Some critical aspects due to the lack of knowledge about Mars EM environment are briefly discussed.