Concepts for future payloads - ESA´s astrophysics mission program beyond 2015

The long-term science missions program of the European Space Agency (ESA) for launch beyond 2015 - the Cosmic Vision 2015-2025 - will comprise the three disciplines of astrophysics, fundamental physics and solar system studies. The program is aimed at answering the following fundamental questions ranging from how the solar system works, what the conditions for planet formation are and the emergence of life, to the formation of the Universe and its composition. Following a call for mission proposals early 2007 and after a review and an initial down selection, nine mission candidates, out of 50 proposals, were retained to go into the next round, the competitive assessment study within the European Space Agency together with industrial partners. The astrophysics and fundamental physics mission candidates comprise a dark energy mission (EUCLID), a medium to far infrared mission to discover the origins of galaxies, stars and planets (SPICA), an international X-ray observatory (IXO), a mission to observe planetary transients and oscillations of stars (PLATO) and a space interferometer consisting of a formation of spacecraft to detect gravitational waves (LISA). Apart from the astrophysics missions there are four solar system mission candidates: a fleet of spacecraft for investigating plasma coupling (Cross Scale), a near Earth object return mission (Marco Polo), a mission to explore the Sun (Solar Orbiter) and a mission to Europa and the Jupiter system (Laplace/EJSM). This paper, gives an overview of ESA´s long-term science program Cosmic Vision 2015-2025 including the selection process and describes the candidate missions with emphasis on the payload concepts of future astrophysics missions.