ESA - Robotic Exploration of Mars: The ESA-NASA ExoMars programme 2016-2018

Establishing if life ever existed on Mars is one of the outstanding scientific questions of our time. To address this important goal, the European Space Agency (ESA), in cooperation with NASA, has established the ExoMars Programme to investigate the Martian environment and to demonstrate new technologies paving the way for a future Mars sample return mission in the 2020's.
Two missions are foreseen within the ExoMars programme: one consisting of an Orbiter plus an Entry, Descent and Landing Demonstrator (to be launched in 2016) and the other, with a launch date of 2018, consisting of two rovers. Both missions will be carried out in cooperation with NASA.