America and Europe are looking now at flying just one rover to Mars in 2018. The US and European space agencies (Nasa and Esa) had planned to land two vehicles together on the Red Planet to perform a kind of tandem mission. One rover would have investigated below the surface with a drill; the other was to have collected interesting rocks for later return to Earth. But cost concerns have prompted Nasa and Esa to consider combining these roles into a single vehicle. Read more
The Mars Astrobiology Explorer-Cacher (MAX-C) is a NASA concept for a Mars rover mission proposed to be launched in 2018 together with the European ExoMars rover. Read more
The Mars Astrobiology Explorer Cacher (MAX-C), a mission to Mars that could help determine whether the planet ever supported life and could also help answer questions about its geologic and climatic history, should be NASA's highest priority large mission, the report says. This mission will be the first step in a multipart effort to eventually return samples from the planet. The report stresses, however, that the mission should be conducted only if the cost to NASA is approximately $2.5 billion -- $1 billion less than the independent estimates provided to the committee. NASA and the European Space Agency, which would run the mission jointly, should work together to reduce the scope of the mission and ensure that both agencies still benefit. Read more