Paris: After Europe terminates its Rosetta mission — the world’s first-ever orbit and landing on a comet zipping through space — what can we look forward to next in the exploration of faraway frontiers?

Moon village

Dismissed as “crazy” by some, the European Space Agency’s new boss hopes to pioneer a research village on the Moon — a multinational project to replace the International Space Station which is currently envisioned to operate until 2024.

Jan Woerner has put his proposal, though still in its infancy, to the bosses of other space agencies, seeking a joining of forces to build a base for lunar exploration by humans and robots, and possibly even a mining site.

Such a base could also serve as a stopover for spacecraft to and from destinations further afield, such as Mars.

Catching an asteroid

Nasa has ambitious plans to capture a boulder from an asteroid and move it into orbit around the Earth’s Moon for close-up study.

Once there, the American agency plans to send two astronauts to collect samples from the boulder wearing spacesuits designed for deep space missions.

This would help prepare for future missions to obtain, and return, samples from Mars, for example.

Earlier this month, an American spacecraft called OSIRIS-REx set off to collect samples from an asteroid, which like comets are thought to have delivered life-giving materials to a juvenile Earth.

They are believed to contain material from the birth of the Solar System.

Added to data gathered by Rosetta and comet lander Philae, further asteroid analysis may help piece together the origins and evolution of our planet and its neighbours.

Efforts to deflect incoming asteroids which threaten to impact Earth, are still in the conceptual phase.

The Red Planet

The next mission to probe Mars for traces of life will be the joint Europe-Russia ExoMars rover due for launch in 2020. It will be built to drill up to two metres (seven feet) into the Martian surface.

An ExoMars orbiter will arrive at the Red Planet in October to analyse its atmosphere and place a trial lander dubbed Schiaparelli on its surface.

Nasa’s Curiosity rover has already been criss-crossing our neighbour planet for more than three years.

The American agency has plans for a manned trip to Mars in the next 10-15 years, with similar a project also being pursued by US billionaire Elon Musk.

Dutch company Mars One, hopes to create human colonies on the Red Planet, and is running Earth-based experiments in preparation, with volunteers.

For the moment, return is not part of the plan.