Next month, when ministers from the 15 member states in the European Space Agency meet in Berlin to discuss its next five-year chunk of funding, writes Daniel Clery, they will face an important question: is it time for Europe to forge its own path among the planets?

For the past four years, Esa has been quietly laying the groundwork for a programme, Aurora, that could take European astronauts to the moon and Mars. Now it is time to see if politicians have the stomach for it.