Reaching for Mars
Recently, NASA was basically told by the U.S. government to not plan on any more missions to Mars that involved human habitats, but instead to focus on other things in space. Granted, the budget restraints had a lot to do with most of this, as NASA has been having a lot of financial problems lately. But other international countries obviously felt differently in the past, such as the ESA.
On April 6th and 7th of 2005, European scientists met at an ESA international space workshop at Aston University, Birmingham, England. It was put together by England’s Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council (PPARC), with those attending space scientists and agency officials from a multiple of locations–Europe, Canada, and North America. The international space agency also attended, for the debate of robotic mission options up to 2013, in the first phase of the Aurora program.
Those involved felt strongly regarding a mission equipped with a Rover “as the next scientific mission to Mars as part of the European Space Agency’s Aurora program of planetary exploration,” according to the European Space Agency. This goal of the mission was to conduct a detailed analysis of the Martian environment, searching for past and present traces of life. The first launching planned is to be in June of 2011, with a two-year journey to follow, whereas arrival is planned to be in June of 2013 on Mars. In December of 2005, a highly detailed proposal was prepared at the Agency’s Council Meeting at Ministerial Level.
The candidate missions that were considered were BeagleNet, ExoMars, and variant ExoMars-Lite. Additionally, developmental considerations had been given to the long-term Mars Exploration program, with effort to 2011 address the requirements of a Mars Sample Return mission within an overall Aurora roadmap. Key technologies and objectives were recommended for the upcoming mission, from each of these key candidates as the “first robotic mission in the Aurora program.”
This strategy involves several things, in addition to the developing complexity of each mission that will end up with a human expedition to Mars in 2030. Also with the Mars exploration will include those to the Moon, remote sensing of the Martian environment, robotic exploration, surface analysis, Mars sample return mission, and a robotic outpost. On the side, the strategy involves closer developments:
**An exploration of the solar system and the Universe
**Stimulation of new technology
**Desiring the young Europeans to become more interested in science and technology.
This entry was posted on Sunday, February 24th, 2008 at 11:08 pm and is filed under Mission History, Space Agency News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
