Searching for Life on Mars

A robot vehicle which will search for life on Mars will be launched in 2011, it was announced in April 2005. This will be known as the Aurora Mission. European scientists have been frustrated by the failure of Beagle-2 in 2003, but excited by finds of methane (a gas which can be produced by living organisms) by NASA's Spirit and Opportunity rover vehicles in 2004.

The same European Space Agency exploration programme hopes to bring home pieces of rock from Mars by 2016, and envisages sending men to Mars by the 2030s. The mission to bring rocks and people back from Mars will require nuclear-powered spacecraft to generate enough energy for the return flight. It will also require the help of NASA in the USA.