NASA, ESA team up for Mars missions

The European Space Agency and NASA are officially joining forces as they strive to explore Mars.

The Mars Exploration Joint Initiative (MEJI) will "provide a framework for the two agencies to define and implement their scientific, programmatic and technological goals at Mars," the agencies said in a joint statement released Wednesday.

Under MEJI, the two space agencies will look to send exploration missions to Mars in 2016, 2018 and 2020, the statement said.

It is not immediately clear what effects the collaboration will have on ESA's ExoMars rover, scheduled for launch in 2016. But it is expected that NASA will aid the ESA in launching the rover, perhaps by providing a launch rocket and a carrier spacecraft, according to media reports.

NASA, meanwhile, is expected to forge ahead with its plan to launch the Mars Science Laboratory in 2011.

The decision to collaborate on the Mars mission has long been expected. NASA and the ESA have been in discussions on possible collaborations since December.

Budget woes

Wednesday's announcement is the fruit of a two-day meeting in June between NASA space sciences chief Ed Weiler and ESA director of science and robotic exploration David Southwood.

That NASA and the Europeans are considering pooling resources reflects a budget reality it has become too expensive for one nation to pay to go to Mars alone, especially with the long-term goal of returning Martian rocks and soil to Earth estimated to cost at least $5 billion US.

The European Space Agency's head,Jean-Jacques Dordain,had told the European Union the mission budget would hover around 850 million euros.That'sa significant cut from what was once expected to be a 1.5 billion euro outlay.

These budgetary concerns have already led to the ESA's decision in June to remove a major piece of monitoring equipment from the ExoMars rover.

The Humboldt landing tray a payload containing a number of instruments designed to study the planet's weather and seismic activity is not going to be included in the rover, as originally planned.