Aurora - Exploring the Moon, Mars and beyond

Exploring the Moon, Mars and beyond

• In development
• Rover mission (ExoMars) planned for 2018
• Preceding orbiter-only mission planned for 2016
• UK taking a major role

Artist's image of a future Moon base
Credit: ESA

Aurora includes robotic missions to explore the Moon and Mars and lays the foundation for possible human exploration of the Solar System. The UK is taking a leading role in Aurora and is one of the leading financial contributors to the first part of this ambitious European Space Agency (ESA) programme.

Aurora was started in 2001 and is a key part of the strategy to take Europe's space exploration to the next level. One of the ultimate long-term goals of Aurora is to find places elsewhere in the Solar System where humans could one day live and work.

There are a number of projects already underway in the Aurora programme. At the top of the list is ExoMars. Formerly a solely European mission, this is now likely to take the form of a joint mission with NASA and will aim to land a rover on Mars. The rover will be packed with instruments, including a drill to burrow into the rocky Martian surface. An experimental rover is currently under development. This is being led by a team at Astrium Limited (link opens in a new window) in Stevenage.

In addition to Aurora, the UK is also an active member of the Global Exploration Strategy Team. This is a group of 14 space agencies which has set out a long-term vision for co-operation in space exploration. The short-term focus is likely to be on robotic lunar exploration. While much of the effort is focused through ESA, an agreement was signed between BNSC and NASA. A joint UK-NASA team is examining the possibilities of developing a joint robotic lunar lander programme.

Read about the latest status on Aurora in this exciting report issued in March 2010 (PDF - 2184kB - link opens in a new window)

Find out more on ESA's Aurora web pages (link opens in a new window) or on STFC's web pages (link opens in a new window).

Mission facts

• Aurora consists of several different missions. The first rover mission to fly will be ExoMars. At the ESA ministerial meeting in November 2008, the UK confirmed extra funding for ExoMars bringing its contribution to €171.5 million.
  
  
• ExoMars will be followed by other robotic missions to the Moon and Mars, including a mission to bring back samples of lunar or Martian soil to Earth.
  
  
• If all goes to plan, an international mission to send humans to Mars will be launched by the middle of this century. Sending humans to Mars would be the most ambitious project ever in the history of space exploration.
  
  
• During its furthest orbit, the distance between Earth and Mars is more than a thousand times the distance of the Earth and Moon.
  
  
• Astronauts may need to live on Mars for up to a year and a half before they can return home.

Technology

Much of the technology for the Aurora mission has yet to be invented! However, work on ExoMars is well advanced and other missions, instruments and technologies are under development.

STFC in conjunction with Surrey Satellite Technology Limited. (link opens in a new window) has carried out a feasibility study into a UK-led mission to the moon, MoonLITE.

MoonLITE comprises a small orbiter - to provide a communications link between the Moon and Earth - and four 'penetrators which would impact the lunar surface at high speed. These instruments would be the first since the Apollo era to probe the Moon's interior.

UK involvement

The UK is taking a major role in developing the Aurora programme and is the second largest contributor to the ExoMars mission.

ESA has awarded the contract for designing the ExoMars rover to Astrium Limited and several UK teams are developing instruments for the mission.

STFC is also funding a series of 'Aurora Fellowships' aimed at developing the careers of promising young researchers. Aurora Fellows will be at the heart of the UK's future work in space exploration.