Future Space Missions to Mars The Mars Express is the first European Space Agency mission to Mars: the payload comprises the Mars Express Orbiter and the Beagle 2 lander, see the pictures. Launch, on a Russian Soyuz rocket, will be June 2003, with arrival at Mars in late December 2003. The orbiter will pass around Mars in an elliptical polar orbit for approximately one martian year (two terrestrial years), with a closest approach of around 250 km, probing the atmosphere and carrying out high resolution mapping of the martian surface (at the 10-metre scale for images and 100-metre scale for spectroscopy). The UK-led Beagle 2 lander will have on-board a fully-integrated package of instrumentation designed to tackle a range of objectives, including collection of data on atmospheric conditions and characterisation of the geology, mineralogy and geochemistry of the landing site (by imaging, and by stable isotope, Mössbauer and X-ray spectrometry). The search for life One of the key aims of Beagle 2 is to search for the chemical traces of past (and present?) life on Mars, by examining surface and sub-surface soil and rock samples and the atmosphere. One of the most important components of the lander is the mole, which glides across the soil, and can then burrow into soil or gravel. This will allow retrieval of samples from below the surface (away from the layers sterilised by solar u.v. radiation) which can then be transferred to the main body of the lander, for analysis by GAP, the Gas Analysis Package. The purpose of GAP is to determine the amount and type of organic carbon in the martian soil. The Beagle 2 instrument will also measure the abundance of inorganic carbon (e.g., as carbonate minerals) in the soil, and the carbon, nitrogen, hydrogen and noble gas isotopic compositions of components within soils, rocks and the atmosphere. Manned exploration? Manned exploration of Mars is being actively discussed and is by many seen as the next, natural step after the Apollo mission to the Moon. However, the problems to be overcome in order to ensure a safe journey are enormous and few scientists and engineers dare to make clear predictions about when such a mission will take place. Nevertheless, it has been stated that NASA hopes to send astronauts to Mars within the mext 20 years. It is provisionally planned that the astronauts will be living on the surface of Mars for 500 days. An ambitious pre-study of the possible dangers they will face and what can be done to help them prepare was started as the Mars Environmental Compatibility Assessment (MEGA). The artificial ecosystem of a manned spacecraft going to Mars and back is being investigated within ESA's Micro-Ecological Life Support Alternative (MELISSA) project.

Mars Express Beagle 2 Mars Express Orbiter