If you have been on Mars this week it is possible you might have missed the launch of the European Space Agencies (ESA) Mars Express Mission from Baïkonur in Kazakhstan on 2nd June. It ascended to the skies at 23.45 local time (17:45 GMT) to a round of applause from the collected engineers and dignitaries (many of whom like Lord Sainsbury had actually helped to fund its estimated 300 million Euros cost) on the start of a six month journey to the red planet. The scheduled arrival is planned for late December, and fingers crossed (or webbed toes if you happen to be an alien), the life seeking lander Beagle 2, that is carried and released from the side of the main vehicle, should land on the Martian surface on Christmas Day.

We have come a long way since the first confirmed flyby of Mars by Mariner 4, which was launched in November 1964, and sent back 22 detailed pictures of Mars in July 1965. (Soviet Satellite Mars 1 which was launched in November 1962, is believed to have made a flyby of Mars. But contact was lost with the ship in March of the next year and hence we cannot be sure)

This current mission is notable for several reasons. It is the first European Journey to Mars and has been built quicker, four years as opposed to the usual six, and for less money than comparable missions of the past. It also has loftier ambitions then any Mars voyager of the last 25 years, because one of its principal aims is to assess whether life on mars exists now or has existed in the past. The last time this was a primary goal was for NASA Viking 1 & 2 in the mid 1970s which were the first robotic vehicles to land on the martian surface. They were sent to assess a planet which even then it was clear was our best bet of finding other life in our solar system. The objectives on that occasion were to photograph the planets surface, examine the atmosphere and structure of the surface, and establish whether life had ever existed in even a primitive form on Mars.

NASA Viking 1 obtained this colour picture of the Martian surface and sky on July 24, 1976. Camera number 1 facing southeast captured part of the gray structured spacecraft in the foreground.

Unfortunately, whilst the Viking missions were a great success and provided science with a whole welter of new images (over 50,000) and data that is still being pondered today. The one thing they didn't provide much evidence for was life on mars.

The majority of experiments carried out at that time indicated no biological activity, and the one positive result, the infamous 'Labeled-Release Experiment', was subsequently widely interpreted as a non-biological chemical reaction. This interpretation is still widely debated and disputed and the man responsible for the experiment, Gilbert Levin, has been steadfast throughout in his belief that he did find the first compelling evidence for life on mars.