Is ESA's Aurora program serious space exploration?

Heres some more blurb from ESA on Aurora

http://www.esa.int/esaCP/SEMJ9RRMD6E_index_0.html

Still doesnt say much about how things will be accomplished and it appears they are undecided on how to procede but in orbit assembly is involved somehow because they say it is important and show a picture. They dont mention manned spaceflight at all.

Branson is too easily distracted by bright shiny objects--there is no stuff in him.

The Euros have signed a recent agreement with the Russians according to Space Daily. They want an Orel (actually closer to the Zenit derived Baikal) flyback, presumably for Ariane 5--or a replacement. The Euros are building an R-7 pad in Kourou. I thought that the Kliper was a bait and switch to get the Euros to give the R-7 pad hydrogen upper stage handling tech as a sneak way to build an Ariane killer and have the Euros all but pay for it. The Onega R-7 would be past the Ariane 4 class and be in Zenit light Ariane 5 class.

Yet the Euros don't seem very concerned.

I wonder if we may see Energiya M and its bigger relatives in coming years to serve as an Ariane 5 replacement. Probably not--but it would be best for manned spaceflight.

Hey, as long as we can keep our projects full of bright shiny objects, we'll keep getting money out of him.

And who's better at producing bright shiny objects than aerospace engineers.

Rule of thumb in aerospace engineering: if it looks pretty, it's generally a good design. If it has all the sex appeal of a slug, then it very likely is a poor design.

http://www.esa.int/esaCP/SEMJ9RRMD6E_Un ... dom_0.html

Oh my god.... Exploration of Mars? By the time they are gonna start something usefull like colonising/manned stations, they are gonna have to clean Mars from all the rovers and robots

We're going nowhere fast....

No man, they are. We, on the other hand, can get there faster, safer, and cheaper, because we're bloody capitalist dogs, that's why!

IT seems Ariannespace wants to have independant access to space for European astronauts, even if ESA is a bit vague about the subject. There's a mention of European astronauts in this BBC article.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4394097.stm

I cant see ESA's Aurora program getting men to Mars without a manned spaceship. They really need to commit to this financially with a proper strategy rather than publishing pretty pictures and vague ideas if they are serious.

Yes it is moving ahead. Check out the roadmap, and the updates. They are right now working on the first projects, of which one is the ExoMars rover, in development right now. Another project is the aerobraking demonstrator which according to the plan will launch in 2007. The ExoMars rover is to launch in 2009. As far as I know, things are moving ahead. Also it is important to know they are in the absolute beginning of the project.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4394097.stm
hmmm

looks like ythe UK are actually gonna do something space related!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4423883.stm

when is the us sending its new ones? who will find life first !

It appears that ESA has added Kliper to its Aurora Program at a cost of $60.5m. So it seems that there might be some substance after all..

http://www.flightinternational.com/Arti ... +plan.html

Here's an article from the BBC whic says th Royal Astonomical Society is arguing that the UK should join ESA's manned spaceflight program rather than just the robotic missions it currently supports. Hopefully things are changing and Europe might have its own automous manned space program within a few years.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4351688.stm

This is very good news indeed!

This article says that ESA will ask the EU member states for 30-40m Euros to fund a preparatory study to add Kliper to the Aurora program. It seems that ESA appears to be emthusiastic about working on Kliper, the deal talked about would gaurantee them 2 seats on each flight to the ISS.


http://www.isn.ethz.ch/news/sw/details.cfm?ID=13412

Links:
http://www.flightinternational.com/Arti ... o+ISS.html
http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/forums ... 17&posts=4

Revised Links:
http://www.russianspaceweb.com/soyuz3_lv.html
http://www.russianspaceweb.com/kliper.html

http://www.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/cont ... ndex.shtml


http://membres.lycos.fr/kvant2/kliper/kliperphotos.html

http://membres.lycos.fr/kvant2/kliper/kliper-29.JPG


Misc:
http://www.shuttlelaunchcomplex.com/mycomplex.htm

http://www.ipmsstockholm.org/magazine/2 ... plorer.htm

http://www.starshipmodeler.com/real/bd_juno1.htm

http://photos.groups.yahoo.com/group/sp ... %26.view=t

http://www.oceanpd.com/

NOTE TO ALL: this topic has now been moved here to the (new, and more appropriate) European Space Activities forum.