Posted: Tue, Feb 28, 2012, 8:49 AM ET (1349 GMT)
NASA announced Monday it was creating a new planning group to study potential future robotic Mars missions in the wake of the administration's decision not to continue planned cooperation with Europe on a Mars exploration program. NASA announced that Orlando Figueroa will chair the new Mars Program Planning Group (MPPG), which will be tasked with helping reshape the agency's Mars exploration program. The move comes two weeks after the release of the agency's fiscal year 2013 budget proposal, which ends NASA's previously-planned cooperation with ESA on the ExoMars program, which included an orbiter launched in 2016 and a lander and rover in 2018, a decision that has met with strong opposition from planetary scientists. NASA is instead considering potential missions for launch in 2018 and/or 2020. The MPPG will be part of a broader strategic review of the agency's Mars exploration plans that will feature cooperation from the agency's human spaceflight mission directorate and its space technology program.

Related Links:

•  AP article
•  NASA press release