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The latest version of this ambitious roadmap was presented at the third Aurora Working Meeting in Cologne in November. This long-term plan, which has
been endorsed by Auroras Exploration Programme Advisory Committee (EPAC), recently received the blessing of the Aurora Board of Participants
2007 an entry vehicle demonstrator mission to validate and demonstrate high-speed re-entry technology
2009 ExoMars, an exobiology mission to send a rover to Mars in order to search for traces of life past or present and characterise the nature of
the surface environment.
2011 / 2014 Mars sample return, a split mission to bring back to Earth the first samples of Martian material
2014 Human mission technologies demonstrator(s) to validate technologies for orbital assembly and docking, life support and human habitation
2018 a technology precursor mission to demonstrate aerobraking/aerocapture, solar electric propulsion and soft landing (formerly envisaged as a
smaller Arrow-class mission to be launched in 2010)
2024 a human mission to the Moon to demonstrate key life support and habitation technologies, as well as aspects of crew performance and adaptation
and in situ resources utilisation technologies
2026 an automatic mission to Mars to test the main phases of a human mission to Mars
2030 / 2033 a split mission that will culminate in the first human landing on Mars
[Edited on 16-1-2004 by MarkLuitzen]