Europe plans to launch an unmanned space probe to land on the surface of Mars in 2011, according to a recent report.
Germany has formally endorsed the mission and is expected to fund a large part of it.
If launched as scheduled, ExoMars will land on Mars in 2013, or about two years after the earliest date on which Americans are expected to return manned missions to the Moon.
The details of the ExoMars program have not yet been determined, but it is a fair bet that the lander could conduct experiments designed to sample the planet for signs of life.
The first experiments designed for this purpose occurred during NASA's Viking missions, which landed on Mars in the mid-1970's. The experiments involved inserting a soil sample into a chemical brine to determine whether traces of gases associated with life could be found. The results were inconclusive.
Source of ExoMars information:
Link.
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