Europe is exploring new worlds and searching for extra-terrestrial life.
As part of an international team, ESA will build humankind’s most remote research base in orbit round the Moon and send the first Europeans to the lunar surface. The ultimate goal is to send Europeans to Mars in the 2050s.
Europe is also central to the most ambitious Mars mission planned so far – the first robotic round-trip to the surface of the red planet that will return a sample of Mars to be studied on Earth. The sample could help determine whether there was life on Mars.
The icy moons of the giant planets in the outer Solar System could host lifeforms that are living and evolving. This makes them an exciting destination for space missions. A sample-return mission to a moon orbiting Jupiter or Saturn will exploit synergies with the Mars sample-return mission.
Such missions will demonstrate Europe’s position as a global leader in space technology, innovation and deep-space scientific exploration – and inspire the next generation of talented Europeans to enter careers in science and technology.