Watch out Mars, the Europeans are coming - but probably not for at least another 30 years

Europe has initiated a bold programme to prepare the way for manned missions to the Moon and Mars within the next 30 years. The exploration agenda drawn up by the European Space Agency (ESA), entitled Aurora, is being viewed as a serious rival to that devised by the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Nasa).

ESA's advisers have already identified the initial stages of the programme, involving four robot missions to Mars after next year's landing of a British-built probe on its surface. Industrial contracts are scheduled to be in place in 2003, the same year the ESA plans to launch its Mars Express spacecraft, which will carry Britain's Beagle 2 lander to search for signs of extraterrestrial life.

Although only the size of a garden barbecue, Beagle 2 has caused European space scientists to speculate that they could soon be in a position to beat Nasa in answering the ultimate question: is there life beyond Earth?

Colin Pillinger, professor of planetary science at the Open University, lobbied for the Mars Express mission to include Beagle 2, which he named after the ship that took Charles Darwin on his journey of discovery 170 years ago. Professor Pillinger is also one of the staunchest supporters of Aurora, which he sees as a vital continuation of Europe's scientific investigation of the solar system.

"One of the benefits of the Beagle and Mars Express programme is that it has convinced ESA to be very bullish about planetary exploration and we have persuaded some of the foreign ministers in the European council of ministers to start Aurora, which will be our exploration of the solar system," Professor Pillinger said.

Until now, Nasa's programme of Martian exploration was far bolder than anything envisaged by Europe. Nasa is sending a series of robot missions to the red planet that will culminate in a lander returning to Earth carrying the first samples of Martian rock. "Nasa has had a different philosophy. ESA only had one chance, so we've put everything into Beagle to do it as a remote-sensing craft," Professor Pillinger said.

"Nasa is following a programme which is going to lead to a sample return. So their strategy is to find the right place to pick up the right sample and bring it back," he said. Nasa could only do this because they had a far-reaching programme of launching several probes one after the other, Professor Pillinger said. "They are lucky enough to have a programme. We didn't have a programme, but we hope we will have.

"Aurora is very detailed. It considers what you might do with remote landing spacecraft on Mars, orbiters and sample-return missions. Eventually it is hoped that it may have a role in a manned mission to Mars so it has the support of all the community in Europe."

The first phase of Aurora will be composed of two "flagship" missions designed as milestones to advance scientific and technical knowledge to the point that it will underpin any future manned missions.

One will concentrate on sending a rover to Mars, which will travel across the landscape while drilling for samples. The other is designed to build the space vehicles that can bring the sample back to Earth for detailed analysis.

Two further "arrow" missions will be cheaper and less complex. They will answer questions such as how to build a spacecraft capable of returning to Earth or how to slow an orbiter down gradually upon entering the Martian atmosphere.

"Aurora will be a glittering opportunity for European aerospace companies, who have too often been overshadowed by their United States counterparts. Aurora will show where Europe can take a new lead," an ESA statement on Aurora says.

But an ESA spokesman played down the idea that it is trying to start a new version of the space race. "Eventually, it has to be a co-operative venture. A partnership creates a win-win situation and Nasa is looking in the same direction after all," he said. "We have never thought of doing it all alone. For the time being, however, it's our programme and we'll see if we can drive it into an international endeavour."

David Hall, director of science at the British National Space Centre (BNSC), said the UK could be part of a project to send the first astronauts to the red planet. "I think it is feasible to think that perhaps by 2025, Europe would have the expertise to send humans to Mars and bring them back," he said.

Meanwhile, much depends on the success of the Mars Express mission, and the Beagle 2 in particular. Any technical failures could seriously undermine ESA's confidence in its own abilities.

Which is why Professor Pillinger has spent this Christmas carefully packing away the most precious present of his life so that it can be safely shipped to the Russian launch pad in Kazakhstan.

Next May, a mighty Soyuz-Fregat rocket is scheduled to shunt Beagle 2 and the Mars Express mother ship on their 250-million-mile circuitous journey to Mars – the planet will be "only" 50 million miles from Earth by direct line of sight, which is its closest approach for 60,000 years.

Travelling at 30 times the speed of sound, it will take six months for Mars Express to reach its final destination. Five days before going into orbit, the spacecraft will eject the Beagle 2 lander, which will crash into the thin Martian atmosphere at 14,000mph.

With the help of a heat shield, a set of parachutes and three inflatable balloons, it is hoped that Beagle 2 will slow down enough to land safely on Christmas Eve 2003. It will then begin its 50-day investigation of the Martian geology in its immediate vicinity using a robot arm and a burrowing "mole", which will inch its way out from Beagle 2 along a connecting wire.

"We hope to do what a terrestrial geologist would do on a field trip – that is, choose the right kind of rock and understand it so that that when you get results from it they are meaningful to you," Professor Pillinger said.

"This is a device that is built to try and answer a very fundamental question: is there life out there elsewhere in the solar system? And more importantly, is this the first step in knowing whether we are alone in the universe?"

Asked whether he has prepared what he will say if he finds evidence of life, Professor Pillinger replied: "Somebody once likened this to being the same as when Copernicus told the world that in fact the Earth went round the Sun, rather than the Sun going round the Earth.

"Of course Copernicus was too scared to make his announcement because he knew what might happen to him with the Inquisition, so he wrote it up and died before he could pronounce it. I'm not so reticent."