Two extremely demanding space missions, "DARWIN" (ESA) and "Terrestrial Planet Finder" (NASA), are scheduled to search for planets outside our solar system (extrasolar) starting in 20014.

The first international conference to prepare for these missions will be held in Heidelberg April 22 -25, 2003. Prominent scientists and space technology experts will participate, among them Prof. Steven Beckwith (Baltimore), Director of the Space Telescope Science Institute; Prof. Michel Mayor (Geneva), the discoverer of the first extrasolar planet; and Prof. Jill Tarter (Mountain View, USA), Director of the SETI Research Institute.

The first planet orbiting a star other than our Sun was detected in 1995. With this fundamental discovery, the eternal question of the cosmic uniqueness of our life-bearing Earth was removed from the realm of pure speculation and put on a firm scientific basis.

Astronomers all over the world immediately began collaborations to extend this basis and to interpret the newly obtained observational results. To date, more than one hundred extrasolar planets are known.

These are all "giant planets", similar to (or even larger than) Jupiter. They are also located quite close to their parent stars, simplifying the detection process. Because of their size and proximity to their suns, these planets are not likely to harbor life.

Finding planets similar to the Earth is considerably more difficult, and so far, none are known outside our solar system.

The detection of terrestrial extrasolar planets and the detailed study of the conditions prevailing on their surfaces, including the potential presence of life, will require a variety of technological breakthroughs.

Both ESA in Europe and NASA in the United States have accepted this challenge and are preparing two extremely demanding international space missions: "DARWIN" (ESA), and "Terrestrial Planet Finder" (NASA). Both missions are planned for launch in the year 2014.

Figure: The Darwin mission, planned by ESA, will be composed of a fleet of eight spacecraft. Instead of an orbit around the Earth, the Darwin spacecraft will be placed in an orbit far beyond the Moon.

At a distance of 1.5 million kilometres from Earth, in the opposite direction from the Sun, it is a special location, known as the Lagrangian point (L2), named after its discoverer, Joseph Louis Lagrange (1736-1813).

L2 is the second of five points of equilibrium in an orbital system containing two massive bodies, in this case, the sun and the earth. Darwin will operate from L2.

Darwin will search out planets similar to the earth and detect chemical traces of life in the atmosphere of each planet. Six spacecraft will carry the telescope, the seventh will bundle the light so as to simulate a giant reflector, and the eighth spacecraft will communicate between the earth and the fleet. The mission is currently undergoing assessment and is planned to be launched in 2014.

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