ESA - ExoMars

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flynn

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<b>Mars chip to test for life signs </b><br /><br />It is set to become one of the key experiments on ExoMars, Europe's next mission to the Red Planet in 2011. <br />The Life Marker Chip will test soil samples drilled from below Mars' surface for specific molecules that can be associated with life. <br /><br />The results might not be a definitive proof of the existence of microbes, but they could still provide tantalising evidence for their possible presence. <br /><br />Full Story<br /><br />I really hope they make a lander that looks this cool. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <font color="#800080">"All God does is watch us and kill us when we get boring. We must never, ever be boring" - <strong>Chuck Palahniuk</strong>.</font> </div>
 
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qso1

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flynn:<br />The results might not be a definitive proof of the existence of microbes, but they could still provide tantalising evidence for their possible presence.<br /><br />Me:<br />True, and that will keep momentum going until a definitive conclusion can be reached. The probe makes me think of a toaster. A cool design and one that made me recall the days when I used a video toaster, hmmm. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><strong>My borrowed quote for the time being:</strong></p><p><em>There are three kinds of people in life. Those who make it happen, those who watch it happen...and those who do not know what happened.</em></p> </div>
 
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lbiderman

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Maybe it looks like a toaster, but let's face it, ANY rover on Mars doing science is definetely cool!!! Any idea of how long the mission is supposed to last? The MSL lifetime is something difficult to surpass
 
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qso1

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Don't matter to me what it looks like.<br /><br />Don't know what the mission duration is, this is the first I've seen of this one. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><strong>My borrowed quote for the time being:</strong></p><p><em>There are three kinds of people in life. Those who make it happen, those who watch it happen...and those who do not know what happened.</em></p> </div>
 
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flynn

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Function over form yes, but if it looks cool and kids want to buy toy versions that could fuel an interest in space all the better. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <font color="#800080">"All God does is watch us and kill us when we get boring. We must never, ever be boring" - <strong>Chuck Palahniuk</strong>.</font> </div>
 
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qso1

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I'm all for it. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><strong>My borrowed quote for the time being:</strong></p><p><em>There are three kinds of people in life. Those who make it happen, those who watch it happen...and those who do not know what happened.</em></p> </div>
 
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flynn

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Ok so I've dug up a bit of info whilst I had a spare minute (Keira's asleep!)<br /><br /><b>European ministers approve the Aurora Exploration Programme and give green light for the ExoMars mission</b><br /><br /> <i>12 December 2005</i><br />The ministers from the 17 ESA Member States, gathered on 5 and 6 December in Berlin for an ESA Council Meeting, have decided to go ahead with the core programme of the European Space Exploration programme Aurora and its first robotic exploration mission to Mars, called ExoMars.<br /> <br />Aurora, which is an optional programme of the Agency, i.e. Member States are free to decide whether they want to participate in the programme and up to which amount, received a large interest with the ministers and representatives from 14 countries agreeing in Berlin to subscribe to the programme up to a rate which exceeded the expectations. <br />ExoMars is the first robotic mission to be developed within the Aurora programme framework. Scheduled to be launched from Kourou to Mars in 2011, the ExoMars mission will deploy a highly mobile rover with an exobiology instrument suite and a drill that will reach soil samples up to two meters under the Mars surface in search of traces of extinct or still existing life. <br /><br />Full Story <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <font color="#800080">"All God does is watch us and kill us when we get boring. We must never, ever be boring" - <strong>Chuck Palahniuk</strong>.</font> </div>
 
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flynn

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Mission profile such as it is at the moment. Still a bit vague!<br /><br /><b>ExoMars</b><br /><br />ExoMars is the first Aurora Flagship mission to be assessed. Its aim is to further characterise the biological environment on Mars in preparation for robotic missions and then human exploration. Data from the mission will also provide invaluable input for broader studies of exobiology - the search for life on other planets.<br /> <br />This mission calls for the development of a Mars orbiter, a descent module and a Mars rover. The Mars orbiter will have to be capable of reaching Mars and putting itself into orbit around the planet. On board will be a Mars rover within a descent module. <br /><br />Full Story <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <font color="#800080">"All God does is watch us and kill us when we get boring. We must never, ever be boring" - <strong>Chuck Palahniuk</strong>.</font> </div>
 
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flynn

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A skim through this looks interesting (If you have a spare week<img src="/images/icons/smile.gif" />) Will have to check it out myself later.<br /><br />Reports 1 - 4<br /><br />For the layman like myself gives a good insight into what goes on behind these missions in the early planning stages, hope they keep the reports coming like this. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <font color="#800080">"All God does is watch us and kill us when we get boring. We must never, ever be boring" - <strong>Chuck Palahniuk</strong>.</font> </div>
 
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flynn

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From NewScientist<br /><br /><b>ESA to tackle Mars once more</b><br />17 June 2006 <br /><br />THE last time Europeans tried to land on Mars it was a disaster: the European Space Agency's Beagle 2 probe simply crashed on the Red Planet. So ESA is getting ready to redress this. On Monday it said it has learned lessons from Beagle 2 for its ExoMars mission, which will look for chemical signs of life on Mars.<br /><br />After a two-year journey following its launch in 2011, the spacecraft will use parachutes, retrorockets and airbags to soft-land. Then it will release a rover to roam across the planet.<br /><br />The rover will be more autonomous than NASA's robots, Spirit and Opportunity. It will also carry a sophisticated chemistry set to experiment on rocks and look for signatures of life, such as amino acids.<br /><br />An inquiry commissioned by ESA and the UK government concluded that the Beagle 2 project was hastily planned and treated as a minor add-on to the Mars Express mission. ESA's Bruno Gardini says the mistakes will not be repeated. "There is one fundamental difference: it is not an add-on," he says.<br /><br /><br /><b>Europe's new Mars probe to banish ghost of Beagle 2 </b><br />15:09 12 June 2006 <br /><br />Europe is gearing up to send another probe to the surface of Mars. At a press conference in London, UK, on Monday, scientists outlined their ambitions for the ExoMars mission, which will look for chemical signs of life, past or present, on the Martian surface.<br /><br />The UK will be a major contributor to ExoMars, due for launch in 2011. If successful, it would heal some disappointment over the failure of the British Beagle 2 lander in 2003. “The UK is actively preparing to return to Mars,” said John Zarnecki, a planetary scientist from the Open University in Milton Keynes, UK. <br /><br />The European Space Agency mission will send a spacecraft to the Martian surface with a rover folded inside. After a two-year journey, the spacecraft will use parachutes, retroroc <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <font color="#800080">"All God does is watch us and kill us when we get boring. We must never, ever be boring" - <strong>Chuck Palahniuk</strong>.</font> </div>
 
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nacnud

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I wish they would plan a couple of these so they can go to different locations. An exomars rover with a sample return mission would be great too.
 
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flynn

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Yeah, it would be good to spread the development cost over a multiple vehicles (especially if you had say 6 you could risk a couple at riskier landing spots and 1 for a pole). Probably just a dream though, still ESA have shown with Venus Express their willingness to reuse thier developed technologies so fingers crossed. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <font color="#800080">"All God does is watch us and kill us when we get boring. We must never, ever be boring" - <strong>Chuck Palahniuk</strong>.</font> </div>
 
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