After recent discoveries, growing attention and curiosity for the much watched the Red Planet, so much so that as early as next year a new mission , as well of EUR 1.2 billion, will start, with the intent to reach Mars with new probes, designed to find ways of life past or present on its surface.
The new mission will be called ExoMars and organized by the European Space Agency (ESA), including the Italian Space Agency (ASI). The launch of the ExoMars mission is scheduled by January 2016, with a first phase that includes a module in orbit around the planet and a descent module. The latter will be built in Italy, in the plants in Turin of Thales Alenia Space.
2018 then there is a second phase, conducted by ESA and also assisted Russia , during which a rover, called Schiaparelli, will explore the Martian surface and pierce with a drill Italian (brother of the one used by the Rosetta lander Philae in the mission) to a depth of two meters, looking for traces of life. Going down so deep it will take in the information that we know is rich in water, mostly frozen. It will be interesting to study the composition and found traces of chemicals that can be connected to biological phenomena.
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