Current plans within the European Space Agency (ESA) for the future investigation of Mars (after the ExoMars programme) are centred around participation in the Mars Sample Return (MSR) programme led by NASA. This programme is housed within the Human and Robotic Exploration (HRE) Directorate of ESA. This White Paper, in response to the Voyage 2050 call, focuses on the important scientific objectives for the investigation of Mars outside the present HRE planning. The achievement of these objectives by Science Directorate missions is entirely consistent with ESA’s Science Programme. We illustrate this with a theme centred around the study of the Martian polar caps and the investigation of recent (Amazonian) climate change produced by known oscillations in Mars’ orbital parameters. Deciphering the record of climate contained within the polar caps would allow us to learn about the climatic evolution of another planet over the past few to hundreds of millions of years, and also addresses the more general goal of investigating volatile-related dynamic processes in the Solar System.

欧洲航天局 (ESA) 的当前计划（在 ExoMars 计划之后）对火星的未来调查以参与由 NASA 领导的火星样本返回 (MSR) 计划为中心。该计划隶属于 ESA 的人类和机器人探索 (HRE) 理事会。本白皮书响应 Voyage 2050 号召，着重于当前 HRE 规划之外的火星调查的重要科学目标。科学理事会任务实现这些目标完全符合 ESA 的科学计划。我们以围绕火星极冠研究和火星轨道参数已知振荡产生的近期（亚马逊）气候变化调查为中心的主题来说明这一点。