European Space Mission to Mars Blasts Off

300 million Euros ($A400m) worth of space ship has blasted off on a six-month mission to Mars.

Mars Express, Europe's first voyager to the red planet, lifted off from a Russian base in Kazakhstan on a 400-million-kilometre journey.

Once the spaceship reaches Mars, a British-made surface explorer called Beagle 2 will fly down and begin a series of tests to try to find out whether or not life once existed there.

A robot mole will dig into the ground and will conduct experiments from the soil samples it takes. Other projects include testing for water and checking out the gases in the atmosphere.

The European Space Agency hopes that the experiments will shed light on life on Mars.

While the ground units are conducting their scientific work, the orbiting Mars Express will map the planet's surface and use radar to try to find underground water.

Launched on top of a Soyuz-Fregat rocket, the Mars Express is a honeycombed aluminium box that measures 1.5 by 1.8 by 1.4 metres (excluding solar panels), and weighs 1223 kilograms in total.

The Beagle-2 lander travels attached to one side of the spacecraft and, according to ESA scientists, is "folded up rather like a very large pocket watch."

The Mars Express is expected to reach the planet close to Christmas this year.

Click here to visit the European Space Agency website.