The Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and the European Space Agency (ESA) have called for proposals for a robotic space mission that the two organizations will develop together and launch in 2021.

The ESA said in a statement that the goal of the two organizations is to define a scientific space mission that will be implemented as "a cooperative endeavor between the European and Chinese scientific communities."

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The mission that is selected as a result of the proposal call "will follow a collaborative approach through all the phases: study, definition, implementation, operations and scientific exploitation," said the ESA.

The proposals, which are due by March 16, must be signed by one European-based lead investigator, and another one based in China, ESA officials said. The peer-review process will start in April, and the winning mission proposal will be selected in late in late 2015 - there will be six years of mission development before its 2021 launch.

The two organizations are seeking relatively low-budget mission proposals, as tje ESA and CAS are each prepared to kick in about about 53 million euros ($61.5 million). According to the mission parameters, the spacecraft must weigh less than 661 lbs. (300 kilograms) at launch and be designed to operate for at least two to three years, ESA officials said.

The call for proposals derived from two 2014 workshops that promoted cooperation between Chinese and European scientists. One of the workshops was held in China in February, and the other took place in September in Denmark.

The mission in 2021 won't be the first time the ESA and the CAS have collaborated toegether. In 2003 and 2004, the European/Chinese Double Star mission launched two satellites to study Earth's magnetosphere, and is currently still in operation.

TagsChina China, Europe Team Up for Robotic Space Mission, The Chinese Academy of Sciences, european space agency, CAS, ESA, European/Chinese Double Star