Towards a sustainable and environment-friendly development of international cooperation in planetary exploration: building a new COSPAR Exploration RoadMap

The Panel on EXploration of the Committee on SPAce Research (COSPAR) of the International Science Council (ISC) is actively preparing for the 2026 Assembly in Florence a new edition of its RoadMap for Exploration, with contributions from all relevant Scientific Commissions of COSPAR. The main goal of this RoadMap is to provide a 20-year perspective on the upcoming developments of Human and robotic exploration of the Solar System, to identify with the relevant scientific communities the greatest scientific benefits that are expected from planetary exploration, and to suggest ways to secure the largest possible scientific return from investments in exploration made by an increasingly broad spectrum of players. To achieve this goal, PEX and COSPAR will identify and promote the most promising mechanisms for international cooperation. We will identify the best practices to preserve the natural environments and sometimes sparse resources available at the different destinations in the Solar System, particularly at the Moon and Mars. We will also identify the critical technology developments needed for science, in the spirit of the Horizon 2061 foresight exercise. We will explore the best approaches for securing a sustainable exploration program offering participation opportunities to all public and private stakeholders. We will also explore the conditions that will favor an open cooperation between all these stakeholders for the benefit of scientific discoveries and of a peaceful expansion of Humankind into outer space.

In the context of the EGU, we will emphasize the outstanding contributions to this RoadMap that are expected from the European community, and engage with the audience and with EGU participants  on their participation in this new version of the COSPAR RoadMap for Exploration.