PolAres is an interdisciplinary programme of the Austrian Space Forum in cooperation with international partners to develop strategies for human-robotic interaction procedures and to emphasise planetary protection, in preparation for a future human-robotic Mars surface expedition.

The first component of the programme prepares a geographical assessment of plausible regions for analogue science in Europe and the neighbouring Arctic (Greenland, Iceland and Siberia). A special task force shall pursue location scouting with the help of Earth observation imagery and in-situ data as well as other relevant information.

Due to problems with the leashes we had at the 19th of July 2008 two launch failures of Passepartout II (IIa, IIb). However the payload could be saved.

80-80-80.
A mission requirements document couldn't be shorter.
The PolAres Rover „Phileas“shall:

Within the mars analogue research programme “PolAres”, the Austrian Space Forum has developed the spacesuit simulator “Aouda” which is able to mimic border conditions a real Mars spacesuit would provide during a surface EVA, like weight, pressure, limited sensory input etc… Other components of PolAres include a set of geophysical instruments (e.g. GPR), a rover and a drilling infrastructure (under development) as well as a sensitive tracking technique to study contamination vectors.