Aurora programme

The Aurora programme (sometimes called Aurora Exploration Programme, or simply Exploration Programme) was a human spaceflight programme of the European Space Agency (ESA) established in 2001¹. The objective was to formulate and then to implement a European long-term plan for exploration of the Solar System using robotic spacecraft and human spaceflight to investigate bodies holding promise for traces of life beyond the Earth. The Aurora programme is no longer active. The Terrae Novae programme, established in the 2010s, took over the Aurora's ExoMars programme as well as ESA's long-term deep-space human spaceflight ambitions.

The Aurora programme (sometimes called Aurora Exploration Programme, or simply Exploration Programme) was a human spaceflight programme of the European Space Agency (ESA) established in 2001. The objective was to formulate and then to implement a European long-term plan for exploration of the Solar System using robotic spacecraft and human spaceflight to investigate bodies holding promise for traces of life beyond the Earth. The Aurora programme is no longer active. The Terrae Novae programme, established in the 2010s, took over the Aurora's ExoMars programme as well as ESA's long-term deep-space human spaceflight ambitions. ==Missions== in 2006]] ===Flagship missions=== launches in 2016]] mission]] ESA described some Aurora programme missions as Flagship missions. The first Flagship mission was ExoMars, a dual robotic mission to Mars made in cooperation with the Russian Federal Space Agency and its successor Roscosmos. It involved a Mars orbiter (ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter), a technology demonstrator descent module (Schiaparelli lander), and the Rosalind Franklin rover. The only mission launched under the Aurora programme was: ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter and Schiaparelli, an uncrewed Mars orbiter and lander launched jointly with the Russian Roscosmos in 2016 on Proton rocket with Fregat upper stage. Flagship missions considered for the Aurora programme included: Rosalind Franklin rover originally intended to be conducted jointly with Roscosmos. Cooperation with Russia was cancelled in 2022 after the Russian invasion of Ukraine. As of 2025, the launch is scheduled for 2028 under the Terrae Novae programme. a robotic Mars Sample Return Mission by the mid-2020s a human space mission to be launched in the mid-2030s ===Arrow missions=== Arrow missions were proposed technology demonstrator missions focused on developing a certain technology needed for the Flagship missions. No Arrow mision was launched. Approved Arrow missions, as of 30 January 2003 were: Earth re-entry vehicle/capsule, a step in the preparations for the Mars Sample Return mission Mars aerocapture demonstrator, to further develop the technologies for using a planet's atmosphere to brake into orbit. This particular mission seems to have been revised into an expanded mission to demonstrate "aerobraking/aerocapture, solar electric propulsion and soft landing" to be launched in 2020 ==See also== Astrobiology Constellation program Space exploration Human spaceflight Mars sample return mission ==References== ==External links== Aurora site at ESA Aurora Industry Day 2006 Brochure of the Aurora Programme Another publication about Aurora Aurora Roadmap poster

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