Aurora programme

Aurora is the program of the European Space Agency (ESA ) for further exploration of the solar system, in particular of the planet Mars and the Moon.

The Aurora project was set up in 2001 and includes in addition to the unmanned exploration of Mars and the Moon and manned flights to the Moon and then a manned mission to Mars in international cooperation after 2030 The Aurora program currently includes the following steps (as. February 2005):

• 2007 - Entry Vehicle Demonstrator ( EVD ) - testing of the high-speed re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere
• 2016 - ExoMars - a Mars orbiter and a large Mars rover to search for signs of life
• 2018 - Technology Precursor Mission - testing of new technologies, such as aerobraking, aero capture, electric drives and soft-landing
• 2018 - 2022 - Mars Sample Return (MSR) - return of samples from Mars to Earth
• 2024 - Manned Moon Mission
• 2026 - Unmanned Mars mission as a lead up to the manned mission
• 2030 - Freight items for the manned mission to Mars
• 2033 - Manned mission to Mars

Participating countries are (in alphabetical order): Belgium, Germany, France, Great Britain, Italy, Canada, Netherlands, Austria, Portugal, Sweden, Switzerland and Spain.

This is currently participating in the Aurora project twelve ESA Member States, with Germany on 12 July 2005 joined the program. Every five years, the members decide on the budget for the next steps. In the ESA conference in December 2005 has been confirmed by 14 of the 17 Member States only, the participation in the ExoMars mission, bringing the start of the Entry Vehicle Demonstrator mission probably move this project, or deleted entirely.

For the period 2005 to 2009 900 million euros were estimated. These are estimates, as the industrial cost of launch vehicles and the support of the ESA are not yet available. However, it was stated that this amount only about seven percent of the total ESA budget.