NASA has found a partner for the Study of Mars
November 10, 2009 – 6:38 pm
American and European space agencies signed an agreement on joint exploration of Mars, reports BBC News. The agreement was signed in Washington by Charles Boldenom head of NASA and ESA director Jean-Jacques Dordenom.
signing of the document was preceded by many months of development programs MEJI (Mars Exploration Joint Initiative – a joint initiative to explore Mars) . For the first time on this initiative was announced in July 2009. The development was carried out jointly by specialists of both agencies.
Under a new agreement by NASA and ESA have agreed to jointly study the Red Planet. According to a new document in 2016 to orbit Mars to get a European device, and in 2018 on the surface of the Red Planet to land one or more rovers. According to the BBC, the main objective MEJI – receiving and delivery to Earth samples of soil from the Red Planet.
The decision on joint study of Mars was taken partly from the fact that the Martian program both agencies are experiencing serious financial difficulties. Thus, the development of the U.S. Mars Science Laboratory (which recently was named “Curiosity”) will cost more than 2,3 billion dollars, almost 700 million more than initial estimates, informs Lenta.ru. This fact may lead to cuts in the remaining space program NASA.
The situation is similar to the European apparatus ExoMars: currently in its finalization requires much more money than originally calculated. The launch has been repeatedly postponed due to financial difficulties. BBC notes that the development of a joint project will not be cheap – only by the ESA will require about 1 billion euros.
Most recently, the European Space Agency signed a similar agreement with Roscosmos. Under the agreement, Europe plans to purchase from Russia the details of power plant ExoMars. Moreover rocket Proton will be the backup to the spacecraft (the main will be American “Atlas”). Finally, ESA will Roscosmos in future mission “Phobos-Grunt”, whose aim is to deliver to Earth samples of soil from the Martian satellites.
