European Meeting Fuels Future Space Exploration Missions To Mars And Moon

A meeting held on 15-16 May 2007 in Athens, led by a European Science Foundation (ESF)-led workshop sponsored by the European Space Agency (ESA) has enabled 88 scientists from 11 European countries to agree on science goals for future Europe’s planetary exploration program. This provided the continent with an ambitious mission plan to examine Mars and the Moon. The meeting emphasized the importance of advancing exploration as the “Emergence and co-evolution of life with its planetary environments.” The program known as Aurora, will focus on planetary bodies that can ultimately be reached by humans, although the first steps of the 30-year programme can only be robotic. During the meeting, it was stressed that while a collaborative international mission, Europe wishes to stay the majority contributor of the mission.