Forty years after Neil Armstrong's giant leap for mankind, the United States and Europe took a small step toward a permanent partnership for Mars exploration.
In a joint statement issued today, NASA's space science chief Ed Weiler and the European Space Agency's director of science and robotic exploration David Southwood, said they had agreed to create a Mars Exploration Joint Initiative, (known, of course, by the acronym MEJI) that "will provide a framework for the two agencies to define and implement their scientific, programmatic and technological goals at Mars."
The statement followed a two-day meeting in Plymouth, England. MEJI is intended to address launch opportunities to Mars as early as 2016, with the goal of leading a Mars sample return mission in the 2020s.
NASA and ESA also agreed to subject MAJI's plans for review by ESA member states as well as the U.S. National Academy of Sciences.
You can read the full release here.
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