FLUG REVUE December 2003: Europe aims for Mars exploration

EUROPE´S VISION: MARS

By Matthias Gründer

In 2002, the ESA Council and EU Research Council launched the long-term Aurora programme to explore our sun system – a challenge for scientists from many disciplines. Only Germany is not involved. Why exactly was Mars selected as the long-term goal of European space research? It is the only planet in our sun system that holds out the possibility that humans might reach it and walk on its surface in the foreseeable future. A manned expedition to the planet would require an incredible amount of organisation, logistics and technology, and this in turn is a huge challenge to all the scientists, engineers and technicians involved. The development of resources and methods for carrying out such a flight is the sole objective of the work, and is proof that specialists from all over Europe are capable of meeting such a challenge.

Mars rover of ESA

Aurora is part of a strategy being pursued jointly by ESA and the EU to explore the universe and our sun system, develop the technologies that this requires and involve young people in the research programmes on a wide scale. The ESA Directorates of Science, Manned Space Flight and Technical Operations Support accepted the challenge and formulated the objectives for Aurora: to explore our sun system with automated probes and manned spacecraft, with the Moon, Mars and the asteroids the most important research objects.

At the same time all the spacecraft involved in the programme are to be equipped with sophisticated exobiological payloads for the purpose of searching on other celestial bodies in our sun system for traces of life forms. This should entail close interaction between research and technology, with the one challenging the other to development while that in turn makes possible the first.

The publication of the basic concepts of Aurora was welcomed by scientists and engineers throughout Europe. Some 300 proposals for experiments for inclusion on future spaceflight missions were submitted in the first year alone, and ESA responded by issuing a second call. Now the scientists were required to submit feasibility studies, timetables for implementation and cost plans along with requests for the required equipment and instruments, the spectrum covering every area of human discovery, from research on Pluto to sending humans to Mars.

The ultimate aim of Aurora is to send humans to Mars, and the timeframe for this has been stated as after 2030. First of all all the missions which are stages on the journey of astronauts to the Red Planet have to be planned and carried out with the appropriate technology. In many cases existing technology can be used here or adapted to the specific mission requirements, but in most cases it will be a matter of developing completely new equipment or instruments. Great value will be placed here on dual-use technology, that is, on equipment or methods which can also be used on other missions or on the earth.

In this respect Mars is just a distant goal, more a vision for the programme, for without visions spaceflight cannot be sold to the taxpayer. Moreover, it is already clear today that flight to Mars will only be feasible with extensive international co-operation. Thus the central issue in Aurora is not that Europeans will fly to Mars but that Europe will be in a position to make significant contributions to this mission.

Subjects which have a relevance to humans not just in connection with the flight to Mars include, for example, entry into the atmosphere, braking deceleration and landing, precision navigation, powerplants for faster and cheaper space transport and reliable life-support systems. All this requires close co-operation between persons and institutions in the ESA member states and Canada, also an active partner in the programme, as such collaboration will reduce costs and enable more and more participants to benefit from the experiences of others.

Of course a manned Mars flight cannot take place until unmanned space probes serving a wide range of purposes have clarified the environmental conditions for the astronauts and the technology they will use has been thoroughly tested. For this purpose the Aurora council, whose members include representatives of all the countries participating in the programme, has come up with the concept of “flagship” versus “arrow” missions, the former being major projects to expand scientific and technical knowledge and the latter being technologically less challenging and less expensive missions aimed at reducing the risks on flagship missions.

Two flagship and two arrow missions were discussed for the first time by the Aurora council in October 2002. The flagship missions are ExoMars, which will explore the biological environment of the Red Planet, and Mars Sample Return, which will bring back soil samples from Mars to the earth. The arrow missions are the testing of a re-entry capsule in the earth's atmosphere to prepare for the return of the Mars soil samples, and a demonstrator to prove the technologies that are necessary to decelerate a space probe in the upper atmosphere in such a way that it falls into orbit around the planet.

Two main phases for Aurora have been identified. The first phase (2005 to 2015) will be used to accumulate knowledge and develop and test the technical resources in preparation for a manned mission, while the second phase (2015 to 2013) will see the development and realisation of the European elements of the international mission. Present plans envisage two missions to bring back earth samples, an unmanned outpost on Mars, a possible manned mission to the Moon and finally the manned Mars flight.

In December 2002, the programme council gave the go-ahead to detailed industry studies of the two flagship missions. It is envisaged that ExoMars will consist of an orbiter and a lander, which in turn will set down a rover and install four automated surface stations, which will be used for weather observation and seismological research. The orbiter itself will function as an automatic relay station for the transmission of data to the earth. The launch date is likely to be in the year 2009.

Mars Sample Return in turn should be launched two years later, use a descent module to set down a boring device to obtain the soil samples, bring these back to the awaiting orbiter in Mars orbit by means of a return stage and, following the return to earth in a special re-entry capsule, deliver them to the researchers.

In May 2003, representatives of research institutes and industry met to discuss the status of their preparatory work. At this meeting detailed studies on the conditions for a manned Mars mission were discussed for the first time. These are intended to serve the scientists as decision aids. Finally, in August, the finalists of a design competition for new instruments and equipment for Mars research were selected. This competition attracted entries from students in all the ESA member states and Canada – apart from Germany.

The Federal Republic has no money for visions, and in keeping with the fable about the fox and the grapes, even prominent representatives of the German Aerospace Centre have been explaining publicly that there are “good reasons” why Germany is not participating in the programme, which they are not contesting. Coming from the mouths of the politicians who distribute or withdraw research funds as they wish, this may be in order, but from the point of view of the German scientific community and space industry such utterances are simply unacceptable.

Meanwhile, as Germany's politicians allow their hostility towards research to threaten German scientists with isolation, on 29 September 2003 the first industry contracts for ExoMars and the Earth re-entry Vehicle Demonstrator (EVD) were let. The lucky winners are in Italy, France and the United Kingdom, the losers – as so often – are in Germany.

From page 38 of FLUG REVUE 12/2003

Last updated 10 November 2003

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