BRUSSELS, April 11 (UPI) -- The European Space Agency announced it intends to launch a second trip to Mars to search for evidence of life, the BBC reported Monday.
"We know we're going, we want to go and the intention is to go -- but there are an awful lot of steps between now and then and they will be critical," said Dr. Mark Sims of Leicester University, UK. Leicester has been helping to pull the mission together.
The space mission to Mars has a proposed launch date of June 2011. It is expected to arrive at the Red Planet by 2013, equipped with a roving robot. The 500 million-euro mobile laboratory is expected to "sniff" the air for signs of biology and listen to the ground for evidence of Marsquakes.
The first landing attempted by the space agency was Beagle 2, which went missing in 2003.
Suggestions have been made on what will be sent on the mission. One possibility is ExoMars -- a large rover that flies with a relay orbiter. A second possibility would be BeagleNet, a twin lander designed with smaller rovers.
