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.

ESA Science & Technology: New roadmap to guide ESA in search for exoplanets

The idea of other planets hidden in the vastness of space has long captured human imagination and there has been a recent explosion in the number of exoplanets discovered, with the total fast approaching 500. As the research community heads towards this milestone, ESA called on them for recommendations on how the Agency could build upon this success. The result is a recently published roadmap from the Exoplanet Roadmap Advisory Team (EPR-AT), which looks at the future of the field and how to reach their ultimate, long-term goal: finding an Earth-like planet with possible signatures of life.

Solar Sailing Messages from Earth

As of March 22 we are no longer collecting names for IKAROS, however you can still send your name and message on the LightSail mission.
A pioneering mission is preparing to set sail and you can be aboard!
Lightsail, a project of The Planetary Society, will merge the ultra-light technology of nanosats with the ultra-large technology of solar sails setting a course to the stars. LightSail-1 is the beginning of an innovative program that will launch three separate spacecraft over the course of several years.

Earth's pull 'shaped Moon's surface'

The Moon, showing part of its far side, photographed from the Apollo 16 spacecraft in April 1972

The Earth may have played a major role in shaping the lunar surface, according to a new research study by US researchers.

The team members say our planet's gravitational pull distorted the shape of the Moon in ancient times.

Eggs with the oldest known embryos of a dinosaur found

An artist's impression of what the dinosaurs might have looked like

Palaeontologists have identified the oldest known dinosaur embryos, belonging to a species that lived some 190 million years ago.

Twitter anger over bomb tweeter

Tweeters have joined forces to support Paul Chambers, the man convicted and fined for a Twitter message threatening to blow up an airport.

The Twitter community is angry that the 27-year-old accountant has failed to overturn his conviction.

Francis Ford Coppola receives lifetime Oscar

Coppola has produced more than 30 films, including The Black Stallion, The Outsiders and Lost in Translation

Somali pirates free UK couple Paul and Rachel Chandler

Retired UK couple Paul and Rachel Chandler, hours after being released

A retired British couple have been released by Somali pirates after being held captive for more than a year.

Paul, 60, and Rachel Chandler, 56, from Kent, were seized from their yacht near the Seychelles in October 2009.

Aung San Suu Kyi 'willing to meet Burma's generals'

Ms Suu Kyi said her party was investigating allegations of fraud in the elections

Burma's pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi has told the BBC she is willing to meet its military leaders to help work towards national reconciliation.

A day after her release from house arrest, she said it was time to "sort out our differences across the table".

Sizing up Brazil

The Globalist is a daily online magazine about the global economy, politics, and culture.

Amidst all the hype surrounding its Asian counterparts China and India, Brazil has quietly but firmly established itself as one of the world's most dynamic economies. As the country prepares to elect a new president, we wonder: Which of these statements about Brazil are true?