TIM FURNISS / LONDON
The European Space Agency's Aurora programme to prepare for a manned Mars mission has taken a step forward with the award of a contract to design the ExoMars robotic exobiology mission to be launched in 2009.
Another contract covers pre-development of the Earth re-entry vehicle demonstrator (EVD), to be launched in 2007, as a precursor to the Mars sample return (MSR) robotic mission planned for 2011.
Consortia led by Alenia Spazio, Alcatel Space and EADS Astrium have received full mission design contracts for ExoMars, while EADS Launch Vehicles and Surrey Satellite Technology will conduct the "pre-Phase A" studies of the EVD. Winners of Phase A study contracts for MSR are to be announced this month. ExoMars and MSR are Flagship missions under Aurora - ESA's long-term programme to implement a strategy for robotic and human exploration of the solar system.
ExoMars will include a 200kg (440lb) high-mobility surface rover delivered by an orbiter that will then act as a data-relay satellite. The rover will search for water, measure surface chemistry and determine potential hazards. MSR will retrieve rock samples for return to Earth. The EVD is a small Arrow-class mission to validate the design of the capsule that will return the samples. The mission involves insertion of a small satellite into a highly elliptical orbit and release of a capsule to carry out a ballistic re-entry.
ESA plans to launch a second 200kg Project for On-board Autonomy (Proba) satellite in 2006 to monitor activity on the sun. Proba 1 was launched in October 2001 to conduct Earth observations. NASA has selected Southwest Research Institute and University of California at Berkeley for concept studies for the Magnetospheric Multiscale Mission, fourth in the Solar Terrestrial Probe series.Source: Flight International
