According to NASA PAO: “Representatives from NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA), and Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) met in Paris on 7 December 2011 to explore partnership opportunities involving future Mars missions. Further technical discussions will continue over the coming months to confirm the interest of all three partners. Any NASA decisions on this matter will be based on the outcome of these technical discussions and following the release of the President’s FY2013 budget, in February 2012. NASA is committed to a robust Mars exploration program, both robotic and human. The U.S. spends more on Mars exploration than any other nation in the world, and is the only country to ever successfully land and operate a rover on Mars. And of course, we just launched the most sophisticated Mars rover ever built.”