While the U.S. Stalls, Europe Moves On to Mars

[pokerfan]

The European Space Agency (ESA) seems to have gotten tired of waiting for NASA to commit to its share of the joint 2016/2018 Mars missions that were planned to lay the groundwork for an eventual delivery of samples of Mars to Earth.

Space News is reporting that, to save the two-mission plan, ESA Director-General Jean-Jacques Dordain has formally invited Russia in as a full partner. He's asking the Russian space agency, Roscosmos, to provide its Proton rocket to launch the European Mars telecommunications orbiter and a small lander in 2016.

http://www.planetary.org/blog/article/00003222

[RT Atlanta]

1. Good on them!

I hope to live long enough to see a Mars sample return successfully completed.

Keep pushing the boundaries; I also want to see:

Astronauts return to the moon;

Astronauts "land" on an asteroid;

Astronauts visit Mars (maybe via the proposed one way trip?);

A complex mission to Europa, that includes a heated drill & camera/light system to beam back pictures from what are hopefully liquid oceans below the surface;

A follow up mission to Titan and the proposed boat-system to float on the methane lakes.