Russian Mars probe Phobos-Grunt fell into the ocean earlier this month, far short of its goal of reaching the Martian moon Phobos.

FORBES: Russian Gov't Blames Mars Probe Failure On Programming Glitch

Nonetheless, Mr O'Keefe and Mr Koptev have given the green light to a programme to build a US-Russian space probe for the exploration of Mars.

BBC: Mars rover (Nasa)

The most recent Russian probe, which was launched to the Mars moon Phobos last November, never made it out of Earth orbit.

WSJ: Mars Mission Seeks a Happy Landing

The European Space Agency and the Russian Institute of Biomedial Problems are scheduled to run a joint 520-day mock Mars expedition this year aimed to study the effects of extreme isolation and confinement on 12 volunteers.

CNN: Mars on the brain? Red Planet pioneers to face cosmic mind trip

The mission is also notable because China's first Mars satellite, Yinghuo-1, has been launched piggy-back on the main Russian spacecraft.

BBC: Signal picked up from Russia's stranded Mars probe