The European Space Agency's (ESA) Cosmic Vision candidate missions announced in Paris. Two out of the eight possible missions will eventually fly likely in conjunction with JAXA and NASA.

At a meeting held last week in Paris, ESA’s Space Science Advisory Committee (SSAC) selected the candidates for possible future scientific missions. Tilman Spohn, chairperson of the SSAC said, “The maturity of most of the proposals received demonstrates the excellence of the scientific community in Europe.”

In most cases, if approved, ESA will implement the mission in collaboration with JAXA, the Japanese aerospace exploration agency, NASA or both.

The ESA's ‘Cosmic Vision’ program addresses the following questions:

• What are the conditions for life and planetary formation?
• How does the Solar System work?
• What are the fundamental laws of the Universe?
• How did the Universe begin and what is it made of?

From a list of 50 missions suggested by European scientists, eight have been short-listed.

Three platforms orbiting the Jovian system to perform coordinated observations of Europa, the Jovian satellites, Jupiter’s magnetosphere and its atmosphere and interior.

A mission to Saturn, Titan and Enceladus consisting of two spacecraft, an orbiter and a carrier, to deliver a balloon and three probes onto Titan.

Twelve spacecraft to make simultaneous measurements of the gas of charged particles surrounding Earth.

An asteroid sample-return mission to a near-earth object to study the origins and evolution of the Solar System. It would consist of a mother satellite, which would carry a lander, sampling devices, re-entry capsule as well as instruments.

Two proposals, Dune, the dark universe investigator and SPACE, the new near-infrared all-sky cosmic explorer, addressing the study of dark matter and dark energy.

A next-generation planet finder to detect and characterise planets around alien stars.

A medium- and far-infrared observatory with a large-aperture cryogenic telescope. The mission would address planetary formation, the way the solar system works and the origin of the universe.

A next-generation X-ray space observatory to study the fundamental laws of the Universe and the origins of the universe.

The candidate missions are now competing in an assessment cycle that ends in 2011. At the end of this process, two missions will be proposed for implementation to ESA's Science Programme Committee, with launches planned for 2017 and 2018 respectively.

Spohn commented, “The next decade will indeed be very exciting for the scientific exploration of space.”

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