The current Mars exploration missions (US_NASA, Europe_ESA), especially the science return and the technological achievement, will be introduced. The plans for future international missions to Mars, including those under preparations, will also be presented.

    Professor Alian Wang obtained her PhD degree in Spectrochimie in 1987 from Université des Sciences et Techniques de Lille Flandres Artois, France. Since 2004, she has been serving as the Lead and member of Geochemistry-Mineralogy Theme Group for US-NASA Mars Exploration Rover (MER) mission and Payload Downlink Lead (PDL) for Pancam instrument on MER. Since 2007, she has been serving as a NAS fund Co-I in the ExoMars mission of European Space Agency (ESA). Wang has been leading the Planetary Spectroscopy team at Washington Univeristy at St. Louis since 1994. Two major contributions of Dr. Wang made to MER mission are (1) the finding the evidence of phyllosilicates (H2O/OH –bearing minerals formed in long-standing aqueous environment) and (2) the finding of evidence of dehydration of subsurface hydrous sulfates indicating a salt-rich environment in subsurface as water-reservoir on Mars.