Europe Prepares Its Own Exploration Blueprint

摘要

European space scientists are expected to adopt in May a broad blueprint for space exploration between 2015 and 2025, despite the fact that their spending power for that period is as unknown as the deep-space phenomena they want to explore. The European Space Agency's (ESA) Cosmic Vision 2015-2025 program, disclosed April 19 in briefings at ESA's Es-tec technology center in Noord-wijk, The Netherlands, lays out a series of science goals, including visits to the outer solar system, landings on near-Earth objects, space-based astronomy observatories and a search for conditions that might support life on other worlds.