Europe plans to pour in $13 billion in ExoMars mission

The Hague, November 28: Europe has decided to spend about 10 billion Euros ($12.96 billion) on the space plans, which also includes mission to Mars.

The budget will be used for research and development of various space plans and projects.

After a series of debates and political negotiations, the budget for the space plans has been arrived at by the 18-nation European Space Agency. As of now, the top priority of the space plans is the unmanned ExoMars rover mission, which was also the main topic of discussion at the meeting.

The issues of ExoMars mission and the International Space Station’s funding were criticized by Germany and Italy, while Berlin was more concerned about the funding issue.

The cost of ExoMars mission has almost doubled since its inception (cost estimated in an earlier plan). This mission requires development of a rover, which would land on the surface of Mars and drill in at least 2 meters /6.6 feet in the surface to get the soil soundings.

ESA ministers will pump in 1 billion Euros for the ExoMars mission and rest 200 million Euros will be contributed in by NASA of the United States or Russia. With this deal coming into play, ExoMars should be ready for launch by 2016 as per estimates.

In a news conference, Germany's junior minister for economics and technology, Peter Hintze, said, "The ISS is our biggest technological project and tremendous efforts have been made. Now is the time to reap the benefits of our work.”

The negotiations regarding the global economic crisis also emerged in the meeting, when ESA Director General Jean-Jacques Dodain remarked, "These are investments which can help the economy. This is the right time to invest in the future."

Ministers from ESA countries also decided to pool in 9.9 billion euros to facilitate future research in the field of science. An ESA delegate raised concern about the decision of the United States to discontinue using ISS after 2015.