Kate Kahle: New Mars Probe Adds To Fleet Searching for Life

A new phase in the continuing search for life on Mars is being launched this month. President Barack Obama has said the US has the goal of sending humans to mars by the 2030s, with the ultimate goal of one day remaining there for an extended period of time. NASA is working with commercial partners to build new habitats that can sustain astronauts on the long voyage into deep space. The new spacecraft, the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter, has been sent in collaboration with the ESAand Roscosmos, a russian private company, to look more in depth for the traces of methane detected by NASA's probes, which could be a sign of life on Mars.
I think that this is an extension of the space race, with less political tension. Obama, like John F Kennedy has promised to get people to extraterrestrial locales by a certain point. We are once again racing with Russian  and European agencies. The difference is, with the new global economy, science has become more collaborative, and less competitive between countries, which will hopefully help us to discover more things about our universe faster.
http://www.cnn.com/2016/10/12/health/mars-mission-esa-fleet-exomars/index.html