Aurora: Europe's ambitious programme to explore the Solar System

To ensure Europe has the capabilities needed to perform these missions a dedicated programme of technology development supports the overall activities of the exploration programme.

Europe's approach to Mars exploration

The plan for Mars exploration builds on Europe’s strong heritage in space activities and consists of the following main elements:

• in the near-term, the ExoMars rover mission to investigate the Mars surface
• in the medium-term a Mars Sample Return (MSR) mission to bring back a sample of Mars soil for analysis on Earth
• in the long-term, preparation for possible human exploration of the Red Planet

ExoMars

Mars Sample Return

Generic

Technological challenges

The exploration of Mars is an undertaking which presents a variety of technological challenges, from the physical requirement of bringing a payload to the Mars surface, to surviving and operating in the Martian environment.
 
 
To address these challenges the European Aurora Exploration Programme includes a series of activities which aim to mature required generic and mission specific technologies in time for them to be included in the dedicated project development process.
 
 
International cooperation

Of course for many future missions, including for example Mars Sample Return, the scale of the mission is such that it will be carried out through a programme of international cooperation. Many of the technology development activities mentioned here are intended to prepare Europe for involvement in such a cooperation, and to take an exciting and strategically important role.

Choose from the technology fields in the menu on the right to obtain a brief description of the specific field and also to see a list of the ongoing and planned technology development activities. Selecting one of these activities will open a description of the specific activity.
 
 
Last update: 17 October 2005