Spaceflight Now: U.S. and Europe join forces for future Mars missions - by Stephen Clark

For the complete report from Spaceflight Now click on this link

U.S. and Europe join forces for future Mars missions - by Stephen Clark

NASA and the European Space Agency have agreed on a strategic partnership for future robotic missions to explore Mars, officials announced last week. Ed Weiler, the associate administrator for NASA's science mission directorate, unveiled the plan during a Thursday news conference announcing a two-year delay of the agency's next Mars rover.The next two Mars rovers, NASA's Mars Science Laboratory and ESA's ExoMars mission, are multi-billion dollar flagship missions. "It will be a long term cooperation where NASA could contribute to an ESA-led mission, like ExoMars, and ESA could contribute to NASA-led missions," said Jean-Jacques Dordain, ESA director general. The partnership will help lay the groundwork for the Mars Sample Return mission, which is likely to cost between $6 billion and $8 billion, according to Weiler.