Russia and Europe will explore Mars together

The European Space Agency (ESA) and the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) will sign an agreement to explore Mars in the next few years.

Under the agreement between ESA and Roscosmos, which will be signed later this year, the two sides will launch an artificial satellite on Mars orbit in 2016 to search for methane and other gases. Then an autonomous exploration robot will fly to Mars in 2018. The artificial satellite will receive signals from the earth and then transmit it to robots on the surface of the red planet, the BBC reported.

ESA and Roscosmos will sign a cooperation agreement in
active Mars exploration in late 2012.

Methane is an essential gas for microbial activity. So if the Martian atmosphere contains methane, it is very likely that microorganisms exist on it.

ESA and the US Aerospace Agency (NASA) once intended to work together to explore Mars, but then NASA withdrew from the plan. So Roscosmos decided to partner with ESA to fill the space left by NASA.

"We also have many other opportunities to cooperate, such as Jupiter exploration , " said Frederic Nordlund, ESA's director of international relations.

ESA officials want Russia to supply Proton boosters to launch satellites and autonomous robots to Mars. Russia will also supply components and machinery for two devices. Scientists of Roscosmos and ESA will jointly study the data that the two devices send. Roscosmos will provide a landing system for self-propelled robots.