Europe revives its mission to drill Mars for life in 2028

European countries have agreed to increase their investment in space exploration to almost 17,000 million euros to do without Russia when it comes to taking astronauts into space and to further strengthen their ties with their main ally in this field, the United States. The 22 countries that form the European Space Agency, including Spain, agreed yesterday to a 17% increase in the budget for the next three years to reach a total investment of 16.9 billion euros.

One of the main consequences of this pact is the resurrection of Exomars, the most ambitious Martian exploration mission in the history of Europe.

exploration vehicle to the red planet

, which would be capable of drilling into the Martian soil and searching for traces of life in the subsoil.

The initiative was left in dry dock after the breakdown of relations between the EU and Russia.

The country led by Vladimir Putin was contributing various components of the mission, including launch rockets.

ESA director Josef Aschbacher confirmed yesterday at a press conference that the mission is going ahead without Russia and will be launched in 2028. European countries will be responsible for building virtually all the components needed for the mission, including the lander. previously contributed by Russia.

For the rest, including the rocket launcher, the agency has reached a collaboration agreement with the US. Thus, it revives a mission in which some 1,200 million euros had been invested.

"Until now we thought that the

would spend the rest of its days as a museum piece, but we have found a way for Europe to take responsibility for almost the entire mission and for it to continue thanks also to cooperation with the US," Aschbacher said during the press conference held in Paris.

The new budget also includes a 17% increase for the development of the new European rockets, led by the

, which will allow Europe to stop depending on the Russian Soyuz or Elon Musk's private vehicles to carry their astronauts to the International Space Station and then to the Moon and Mars.

The ESA will dedicate 3,200 million to scientific missions in the next triennium.

will be launched next year to Jupiter and its icy moons to search for life.

is launched

, which will analyze billions of galaxies to try to determine what dark matter and dark energy, which make up 95% of the universe, are made of.

Two exoplanet observatories, Plato and Ariel, will be launched between 2026 and 2029, as well as a mission to intercept a comet.

Human space exploration will focus on three progressive destinations: low Earth orbit, where the International Space Station orbits at an altitude of 400 kilometers above Earth and whose lifetime is extended to 2030 by ESA, the Moon and Mars.

Europe will spend 2.7 billion on these objectives.

The project includes the development of the Argonaut, a vehicle to send heavy loads to the Moon in the 2030s. The construction of three new service modules that will be part of future Orion capsules in which three European astronauts will travel to the future lunar space station and, later on, getting a European to the surface of the Moon for the first time, probably a woman, Aschbacher explained in an interview with EL PAÍS.

You can follow