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The future of space research vehicles

May 19, 2014

It’s going to be a huge challenge. Together with Russia’s space agency, the European Space Agency (ESA) wants to send two separate missions to Mars. The agreement originally included NASA, but the US dropped out of the project for cost reasons.

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But can Europe continue to work closely with Russia on projects like these in the face of the current political situation in Ukraine? ESA has already invested around €400 million. How important are the mission - and what will Europe get out of them? We went to ESA’s research and technology center in the Dutch city of Noordwijk to find out.