Europe joins the race to put a man on Mars

Reuters ^ | 2.3.04 | Reuters

[ambrose]

03 Feb 2004 15:50

Europe joins the race to put a man on Mars

By Jeremy Lovell

LONDON (Reuters) - A European could step out onto the surface of Mars within three decades, under European Space Agency (ESA) plans spelled out on Tuesday.

The plans are more precise than the broad U.S. goals of sending a man back to the moon by 2020 and to Mars by 2030, revealed last month by President George W. Bush.

"We think it is technically feasible to have a manned mission to the moon between 2020 and 2025 and then to Mars between 2030 and 2035," said Franco Ongaro, project manager of the ESA's fledgling Aurora space exploration programme.

"We need to go back to the moon before we can go to Mars," he told an audience of space scientists, academics and industrialists.

"None of the people who worked on the Apollo programme are around now. We need to learn how to walk before we can run," he added.

Ongaro denied there was open competition with the U.S. space agency NASA, and said he expected the Americans, Europeans and Russians -- all of whom have Martian goals -- to be in contact with each other.

Under ESA plans, there will be a mission in 2007 to test a vehicle that can withstand far higher re-entry speeds than currently experienced by those returning from the moon.

This will be followed two years later by ExoMars, a robot mission to Mars in search of life -- past and present -- and in 2014 by a mission to bring Martian material back to earth.

Colin Pillinger, the chief scientist behind the missing Beagle 2 Mars probe that was supposed to land on the planet on Christmas day but was never heard from, said it was crucial to find out if there was life there before a human arrives.

"You can sterilise a robot. But you cannot do the same to an astronaut. Inevitably a human will introduce microbes to the planet...and contaminate it," he told the meeting.

Having established whether there is or was life on Mars and proved the landing, take-off and re-entry technology, ESA then plans within a decade to send a manned mission to the moon to test new life-support systems.

It will also look closely at the physiological and psychological aspects of long duration space missions -- a worthwhile round trip to Mars would take nearly four years.

By 2026 the manned mission to the Red Planet will be nearly ready -- with a final robot mission to replicate the trip and test all the technologies -- followed in 2030 by a cargo mission carrying supplies ahead of the manned shot.

Then, if everything goes according to plan, in 2033 the ESA's manned Mars shot will take off.

"This is a roadmap, a plan and plans change. But this is the most exciting space adventure," Ongaro said.

[rickmichaels]

A European could step out onto the surface of Mars within three decades, under European Space Agency (ESA) plans spelled out on Tuesday.

Without the UN's permission?

[Destructor]

"A European could step out onto the surface of Mars within three decades, under European Space Agency (ESA) plans spelled out on Tuesday."

Three decades? By that time, the Euro wussinauts will be greeted by American realtors on Mars.

[KarlInOhio]

Which is more likely in 30 years?:

A. Europe lands a man on Mars.
B. Europe is under the Sharia.

[DFW_Repub]

You can bet the French astronaut will carry a white flag just in case there is life on Mars

[RightWhale]

ESA is counting on Russian space expertise. ESA won't have any problem paying the Russians for launches and modules--none of this Algorish joint venture business. ESA will be a space force to reckon with, probably it will be stronger than the Chinese space program.

[rrrod]

we'll have an nfl franchise on mars by then!

[jjw]

Wonder what kind of dough these folks will be willing to pay for this technology.

[Bogey78O]

Good joke/real social issue.

[CJ Wolf]

"You can bet the French astronaut will carry a white flag just in case there is life on Mars"

I thought they just used their underwear. The un-soiled side of course.

[Hank Rearden]

I can't imagine a 10-month space voyage in a capsule stocked with stinky cheese. I hope for their sake the windows can be opened once in a while to air the thing out.

[americanbychoice]

Besides not having any money left, Last week they chastised the US for wanting Moon and Mars missions.
I guess, if those superior Europeans want to do something, i's ok, Whenever the evil US announces those ventures, they are skeptical because we want to use it to militarize space?
We need to do it by ourselves and not with anyone else as partners.

[rickmichaels]

we'll have an nfl franchise on mars by then!

Who wants to see Martian titties at halftime?

[ambrose]

What I find interesting is how all the chattering classes immediately panned W's space proposal, and called him a dumb cowboy, etc.

Yet, right after his proposal comes out, we see a flood of these "mee too!" articles from Europe, China, and Russia...

[RightWhale]

Japan, too. Their Space Shuttle is the coolest-looking.

[rrrod]

are they green??

[Mr. Mojo]

The Euros can't even land a probe on Mars (without destroying it), and they've yet to taken the preliminary step of going to the Moon first (which we did 35 years ago).

Their time and money is better spent figuring out a way to keep their increasingly irrelevant continent from being completely Islamicized.

[reformedliberal]

Aren't they the ones whose Beagle is stranded?

[RightWhale]

Right. The American space program began with Vanguard.

[Salman]

Which is more likely in 30 years?:
A. Europe lands a man on Mars.
B. Europe is under the Sharia.

Hate to point this out, but the two aren't mutually exclusive.