A European could step on the surface of Mars within three decades, according to European Space Agency plans spelled out Tuesday.
The plans are more precise than the broad U.S. goals of sending humans back to the moon by 2020 and then on to Mars, revealed last month by President 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 program.
“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 program are around now. We need to learn how to walk before we can run.”
Ongaro denied there was open competition with NASA, and said he expected the Americans, Europeans and Russians — all of whom have Martian goals — to be in contact with one another.
Robotic test mission in 2007
Under ESA plans, there will be a mission in 2007 to test a vehicle that can withstand far higher re-entry speeds than now experienced by those returning from the moon.
That would 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 sterilize 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.
Human spaceflight
After establishing whether there is or was life on Mars and demonstrating that the landing, takeoff and re-entry technology worked, ESA would then work over the following decade to send a human mission to the moon to test new life-support systems.
It would also look closely at the physiological and psychological aspects of long-duration space missions. That's an important factor, because a round trip to Mars could take nearly four years.
By 2026, the crewed mission to the Red Planet would 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 before the human voyage.
Then, if everything goes according to plan, the ESA’s manned Mars shot will take off in 2033.
“This is a road map, a plan, and plans change. But this is the most exciting space adventure,” Ongaro said.
