Telerilevamento e mappatura di superfici planetarie

Mars and Mercury are two significant planets in the current and future exploration of the Solar System. In fact, Mercury exploration is a promising path for addressing many unanswered scientific questions about the formation and evolution of rocky planets (including Earth), as well as the occurrence of water ice in the polar region. On the other side, the Red Planet is an extremely interesting body in terms of ancient life traces, future human exploration and presence of water and ice. This PhD thesis has been realized within two key missions for both planets, the ExoMars/Trace gas Orbiter (TGO) spacecraft currently orbiting Mars, from April 2018 and the BepiColombo probe, currently in its journey to Mercury. Being included in the framework of these two missions above we have the possibility, on the one hand, to have access to entirely new data concerning the surface of the red planet and, for Mercury, to identify and investigate targets of scientific interest that will be investigated when BepiColombo will be inserted in orbit around Mercury in December 2025. This thesis addresses to study regions interested by the presence of surface and subsurface water ice, which are located at different latitude on Mercury and Mars. The study in both planet is carried out by the geomorphological mapping and the crater counting, plus morphometry and compositional investigation for only Mars. The body of work comprises the two planetary bodies, each with its own dataset and analytical approaches and is thus presented in two parts: the first about Mercury and the second about Mars.