In 2001, ESA sent out and Announcement of Opportunity in the context of the Mars Express / Beagle 2 mission to Mars. The AO was aimed at those groups in Europe who did not yet have any experience with the analysis of spacecraft planetary data, but would like to become involved in a planetary mission.

  From Portugal, 3 proposals were submitted: one from the Geophysical Institute of the Univ. of Coimbra and the Centre for GeoSystems of the IST, another one from the Lisbon Astronomical Observatory, and a third one from the New University of Lisbon. They were positively refereed by an ESA committee of experts. The three groups that there was significant  overlap between the projects.

  It was decided to join the three proposals into one project, MAGIC, Mars Atmospherical Geological and exobIological Characterisation. The joint project maintains the three scientific components: Geology, Atmospheres and Exobiology. Currently, the project it being evaluated by the FCT, in the context of the Programa Dinamizador das Ciências e Tecnologias para o Espaço.

  A detailled description of the project is available at www.sstep.org/magic.