Europe, Russia to launch Mars mission to sample soil for signs of life

By Alissa de Carbonnel

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Europe and Russia signed a deal on Thursday for a joint Mars mission which will bore beneath the Red Planet's surface for soil samples they hope will solve the mystery of whether there is life beyond Earth.

Europe's space agency had hoped to work with NASA on the two-spacecraft ExoMars mission but turned to the Russians after the U.S. agency pulled out due to budget shortfalls.

The announcement comes amid heightened excitement over the search for life on the planet in our solar system most like Earth after scientists said analysis from NASA's own mission rover, Curiosity, showed Mars had the right ingredients for life.

European scientists say the two-stage mission, with the two craft to be launched in 2016 and 2018, will pave the way for what NASA has described as the "Holy Grail" of Mars exploration: a separate mission to return dirt samples from the Red Planet.

"Curiosity learnt us a little bit, ExoMars will bring us a step further, but bringing back those samples to Earth you can do 10 to 100 times more analysis," Rolf de Groot, head of the European Space Agency's (ESA) Robotic Exploration Coordination Office, told Reuters.

"That is a goal of everybody who works on Mars exploration."

The Europe-Russia mission hopes to take scientists beyond NASA's finding that the surface of Earth's neighboring planet had the right mix of elements to sustain life, by drilling 2 meters (6 feet) below its radiation-hit surface for samples.

"NASA is also drilling, but two centimeters deep," de Groot said, referring to the ongoing Curiosity mission. "It's a completely different story."

"ExoMars, by drilling 2 meters into the ground, might hope to identify really the big molecules because that would be a direct indication of the presence of life or that life once existed on Mars."

He said the ESA's Mars rover would also be equipped with a much more advanced laboratory than Curiosity has, so would be able to carry out more detailed analysis.

RUSSIAN ROCKETS

Russian Space Agency Roskosmos will provide the rockets to launch the ExoMars - short for Exobiology on Mars - mission and will also design the descent module and surface platform.

Europe turned to Russia after NASA left the $1.3 billion project in February 2012, citing a budget crunch. The ESA and Roskosmos agreed to cooperate last April, but talks to work out the details dragged on for nearly a year.

"This event was a long time in the making and took a great deal of collaboration," Roskosmos head Vladimir Popovkin said after signing the deal with ESA Director Jean-Jacques Dordain in Paris.

Russia's involvement in the ambitious mission could boost the status of its once-pioneering space agency after a litany of costly and embarrassing failures.

The delays in agreeing the mission hinged on the extent of Russia's participation, according to Russian space experts who said Moscow had seemed to reach its goal of full partnership.

"The agreement implies that Russian scientists and engineers will become full-fledged participants in all the international scientific and technical groups," Roskosmos said in a statement.

What was to be Russia's first deep space mission in more than two decades - the Phobos-Grunt mission to scoop up soil samples from Mars - was among five botched launches that damaged Moscow's reputation as a reliable launch partner.

European governments have so far committed 850 million euros to the mission. The funding cap has been set at 1 billion euros ($1.3 billion) but delays and changes to the scientific aspects of the project are expected to drive up the price tag.

Even though NASA pulled out, it will still provide radio communications equipment, an important organics experiment and engineering and mission support.

The United States also plans to follow up its Curiosity rover with an identical probe, to launch in 2020. It has not yet decided if it will cache samples for a future return to Earth.

The U.S. National Academy of Sciences in 2011 ranked a Mars sample return mission as its top priority in planetary science for the next decade. The long-term goal of the U.S. human space program is to land astronauts on Mars in the 2030s.

(Additional reporting by Irene Klotz; Editing by Pravin Char)

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Europe Aims to Launch Robotic Mini-Shuttle By 2020 (SPACE.com)

Rob Coppinger, SPACE.com Contributor
Space.com Rob Coppinger, Space.com Contributor
space.com – Mon Jun 13, 8:14 pm ET

A European-built robot space plane could be flying in orbit before the end of the decade if the project's planning discussions, which kick off this month,  come to fruition.

The spacecraft would be Europe's civilian equivalent to the U.S. Air Force's unmanned X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle, a robotic miniature space shuttle that has flown on two missions since 2010.

This European robot space plane would be an evolved version of European Space Agency’s Intermediate Experimental Vehicle (IXV), which is expected to make its first flight in 2013.

Planning for the space plane starts this month because the final industrial phase for the IXV  is also under way, with the awarding of manufacturing and assembly contracts at the Paris air show, ESA’s IXV project manager Giorgio Tumino said.

Tumino's team finished the IXV’s critical design in May, setting the stage for the spacecraft's construction. [Video: Europe's IXV Space Plane]

"We have a very committed industrial team," Tumino told SPACE.com.

Europe's robot space plane

Like the IXV prototype, ESA's future robot space plane would fly on an unmanned Vega rocket from the Guiana Space Center in Kourou, French Guiana. The spacecraft could be used to monitor the Earth or service satellites, then re-enter the atmosphere and land like an aircraft.

For the full-size spacecraft to fly in low-Earth orbit before 2020, its development, testing and production must be approved by 2015 by ESA’s member states. This decision would follow three years of conceptual and preliminary vehicle design studies that could start next year.

The hope is that the planning that starts this month will lead to ESA member states approving the design studies in 2012, project officials said.

ESA's Vega rocket is slated to make its maiden launch later this year. A successful test flight would move the IXV prototype, a key milestone in the space plane project, closer to its own 2013 test.

Meet the IXV space plane

The IXV space plane weighs about 3,970 pounds (1,800 kilograms) and is 14.4 feet long (4.4 meters) and 7.2 feet wide (2.2 meters). It is described as a lifting body because its shape produces lift without the need for wings.

The vehicle has four thrusters and two body flaps at the rear to provide flight control. For comparison, NASA’s space shuttle vehicle also has a body flap. The flaps are used for pitch control, which determines whether the nose of the shuttle goes up or down, during re-entry.

The U.S. Air Force's X-37B robot space plane is larger than Europe's IXV. The X-37B vehicles, the second of which is in orbit today, weigh 11,000 pounds (nearly 5,000 kg) each and are about 29 feet long (nearly 9 m) and have a wingspan of 14 feet (4.2 m).

Like Europe's IXV, the Boeing-built X-37B is used to test reusable spacecraft technologies but it is also used for classified operations, with many experts suggesting it can perform orbital reconnaissance functions. [Photos: USAF Launches X-37B Space Plane]

The first X-37B launched in April 2010 and that vehicle, OTV-1, made an autonomous landing nine months later in California in December. The second X-37B, OTV-2, was launched in early March 2011 to begin a similar 270-day mission.

Europe's big test launch

When the IXV launches on its first test flight, it is expected to soar into orbit from French Guiana and then splash down in the Pacific Ocean 21/2 hours later using parachutes. The robotic spacecraft is expected to re-enter the atmosphere at Mach 20, more than 20 times the speed of sound.

By performing maneuvers in the atmosphere during descent, the spacecraft should be able to slow itself considerably, to about Mach 2. Parachutes should then be open to slow the craft even further for a water landing.

The IXV will carry 600 sensors to record the effects of its atmospheric re-entry and descent on its heat shield and other systems, ESA officials have said. 

ESA began the IXV project in 2005 with plans for a 2010 test launch, but by 2009 delays had set the flight back to 2012, and it later slipped to 2013. In 2006, ESA officials said that the IXV’s preliminary and detailed design and development work, manufacture, assembly and testing would cost about 100 million euros (about $144 million).

Originally managed by a new European joint venture company called NGL Prime, the project was moved to Thales Alenia Space when NGL Prime closed in 2008. This change in  management also led to a redesign of IXV in 2009.

Tumino declined to give a figure for the latest total cost of IXV due to these industrial changes as final negotiations with industry were under way.

Follow SPACE.com for the latest in space science and exploration news on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.

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China helps unravel new E.coli for embattled Europe

By Tan Ee Lyn

HONG KONG, Jun | Fri Jun 3, 2011 9:23am EDT

HONG KONG, Jun (Reuters) - For three long weeks Europe was gripped with fear battling a mysterious E. coli epidemic, and it wasn't until late this week that China's genomics institute nearly 7,000 km away finally put its finger on the culprit.

Chinese scientists at the Beijing Genomics Institute, the world's largest DNA sequencing center, announced late on Thursday that the E. coli spreading through Europe was "a new strain of bacteria that is highly infectious and toxic."

The researchers, who obtained DNA samples of the bacteria from collaborating scientists in Germany, managed to fully sequence its genome in three days -- becoming the first in the world to do so and lodge its full sequence on the Internet.

They also identified genes in the bacteria that gave it resistance to at least three major classes of antibiotics, which helped explain why doctors in Europe have had such a hard time fighting the bug, that has killed 17 people and made more than 1,500 others ill.

Work continues at BGI's main research arm in Shenzhen city, which lies just north of Hong Kong, to fully characterize the bacteria.

"We have done further analysis and see even more antibiotic-resistant and toxic genes. Our work is still ongoing," said Qin Junjie, a member of the team that sequenced the bacterium and is now analyzing it.

The three classes of antibiotics the Chinese scientists identified as ineffective in fighting the bacterium are first-line drugs commonly used to fight gastro-intestinal infections and as surgical prophylaxis.

"It means doctors have a more limited arsenal among first line drugs (to fight this bacteria)," said William Chui, vice president of the Society of Hospital Pharmacists in Hong Kong. Chui was not involved in the sequencing study.

In Europe, authorities are still hunting for the source of the epidemic, which is believed to have contaminated raw vegetables. Without nailing the source, experts fear they may not be able to contain the crisis.

BIGGEST DNA ANALYSER IN THE WORLD

This new strain bears the hallmarks of other E. coli strains that are known to cause symptoms such as bloody diarrhea, or hemorrhagic colitis, and hemolytic-uremic syndrome, which damages the kidneys.

"This bacteria is a strange creature. Many of its genes seem to have been transferred from (distant) E.coli strains, which provide this strain with the ability to cause hemolytic uremic syndrome and/or bloody diarrhea," said Qin, vice president of BGI's Microbiology Transomics Center.

To most people, China's involvement in unraveling this bacterium terrorizing Europe comes as a surprise, particularly as it is still remembered for trying to cover up SARS in 2003.

But to the industry observer, China has come a long way between then and now.

BGI's research arm in Shenzhen city is strongly backed by the local government, one of China's wealthiest.

BGI in Shenzhen also provides DNA sequencing and other research services for industry and private individuals and income earned is pumped back into research and development.

It has over 180 sequencing machines, giving it the biggest DNA sequencing capacity in the world, and a total workforce of over 4,000, said Yang Bicheng, BGI's marketing director.

"For sequencing alone, we have about 300 researchers," she told Reuters by telephone on Friday.

"We are now trying to understand the toxic genes (of the new E. coli). We are still doing analysis to further identify the functions of these genes," said Yang, a scientist by training.

"We are developing a diagnostic kit. We are testing it now and hope to get approval for it soon. It will be used to detect the bacteria in food and also in people."

Asides from sequencing DNA, BGI has pumped in plenty of resources in recent years into animal cloning and improving its rice breeds and other agricultural products to increase yields, which China hopes would eventually help in feeding its growing population.

BGI scientists, some of whom have been trained in leading universities in the United States and Europe, have even modified its in-house cloning techniques, enabling each researcher to clone up to 200 pig embryos in a single day.

It recently set up a unit to commercialize cloning and meat from the offspring of cloned pigs is expected to be available on the Chinese market in a few years.

(Editing by Alex Richardson)

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