Aurora programme

The Aurora programme, also known as the Aurora Exploration Programme, was a European Space Agency (ESA) human spaceflight initiative launched in 2001. Its goal was to create and carry out a long-term European strategy for exploring the Solar System, using both robotic craft and crewed missions to examine celestial bodies that might contain evidence of life beyond Earth. The programme is now defunct. In the 2010s, the Terrae Novae programme succeeded it, taking over the ExoMars project and ESA's broader ambitions for deep-space human spaceflight.

Member states joined the Aurora programme in five-year commitments, with the option to adjust their involvement or withdraw at the end of each period. Early on, the programme planned both flagship missions and smaller arrow missions to test key technologies, such as an Earth re-entry vehicle and a Mars aerocapture demonstrator. Although human spaceflight remained a long-term aim, with some basic technology work, the main focus became the ExoMars mission and preparations for an international effort to return samples from Mars.

The programme was a response to Europe's Space Strategy, endorsed by the European Union Council of Research and the ESA Council. That strategy had three main goals: exploring the Solar System and the Universe, stimulating new technology, and inspiring young Europeans to take greater interest in science and technology. A core principle of Aurora was recognising how technology and exploration depend on each other.

Flagship missions

ESA designated some Aurora missions as flagship missions. The first was ExoMars, a dual robotic mission to Mars in cooperation with the Russian Federal Space Agency (later Roscosmos).

It included the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter, the Schiaparelli lander (a technology demonstrator), and the Rosalind Franklin rover. The only mission actually launched under Aurora was the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter and Schiaparelli, an uncrewed orbiter and lander sent jointly with Roscosmos in 2016 aboard a Proton rocket with a Fregat upper stage. Other flagship missions considered included the Rosalind Franklin rover (originally planned with Russia, but cooperation was cancelled in 2022 after the Russian invasion of Ukraine; as of 2025, its launch is scheduled for 2028 under Terrae Novae), a robotic Mars sample return mission by the mid-2020s, and a human mission to Mars in the mid-2030s.

Overview

Arrow missions were proposed technology demonstrators to develop capabilities needed for flagship missions, but none were launched. As of January 2003, approved arrow missions included an Earth re-entry vehicle or capsule, a step toward Mars sample return, and a Mars aerocapture demonstrator to refine techniques for using a planet's atmosphere to slow into orbit. This latter mission later evolved into a broader demonstration of aerobraking, aerocapture, solar electric propulsion, and soft landing, with a planned launch in 2020.

As of September 2005, the proposed Aurora roadmap included: 2014 – a human mission technology demonstrator to validate orbital assembly, docking, life support, and habitation; 2016 and 2020 – ExoMars rovers for exobiological and surface studies; 2026 – a robotic mission to Mars; and the 2030s – the first human mission to Mars, as a split mission.