Skip to navigation | Skip to content


Europe to go to Mars


Artist's impression of the Martian Express (courtesy European Space Agency)

The European Space Agency has signed deal worth 30 million euro with the French-Anglo company Matra Marconi Space to create a probe to explore Mars. The project is called Martian Express and is scheduled to be launched by 2003.

More than 24 companies in 14 different countries will participate in the ESA's Martian Express project

whose estimated total costs will be some 150 million euro.

In 1996 ESA tried to launch their first Martian probe on board a Russian-built rocket, but it malfunctioned and the payload was destroyed.

Major space missions can take as long as 10 years to mount, but by necessity scientists working on the Martian Express had to shorten this by 6 years. This coincides with Mars being at its closest point to Earth.

To do this, ESA examined the use of existing hardware, they adopted new management practices for the project and gained access to launch facilities at a reduced cost.

Tags: astronomy-space