ESA - Aurora Programme - Next phase reached in definition of Mars Sample Return mission

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Next phase reached in definition of Mars Sample Return mission

7 April 2006

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Artist's view of the Mars Sample Return (MSR) ascent module lifting off from Mars' surface with the Martian soil samples.

Credits: ESA

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Artist's impression of the Mars Sample Return orbiter. As currently envisaged, the Mars Sample Return will be a two-stage endeavour: a spacecraft that includes a return capsule to be launched in 2011 and inserted into orbit around Mars, to be followed two years later by a second spacecraft carrying a descent module and a Mars ascent vehicle.

Credits: ESA

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Aurora Programme is part of Europe's strategy for space, endorsed by the European Union Council of Research and the ESA Council in 2001. The objective of the Aurora is first to formulate and then to implement a European long-term plan for the robotic and human exploration of solar system, with Mars, the Moon and the asteroids as the most likely targets. Future missions under the programme will carry sophisticated exobiology payloads to investigate the possibility of life forms existing on other worlds within the Solar System. The Programme will also provide for the missions and technology necessary to complement those planned in the existing ESA and national programmes, in order to bring about a coherent European framework for exploration and to progressively develop a unified European approach.

Credits: ESA - AOES Medialab

European ministers approve the Aurora Exploration Programme and give green light for the ExoMars mission