NASA is poised to begin reviewing wide-ranging options offered by participants in a Mars exploration planning conference here June 12-14, with the goal of reviving a follow-on mission or missions to the upcoming Mars Science Laboratory(MSL) program. With MSL on track for an Aug. 6 touchdown in Gale Crater to search for places that could have hosted and preserved life, NASA is looking ahead to replace its canceled Mars sample-return initiative, part of a multiyear three-spacecraft project called Exo-Mars that was to be jointly conducted with the European Space Agency (ESA). ESA intends to pursue the program in partnership with Russia instead.
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