| Following the spirit of the Age of Discovery, when Europeans engaged exploration of overseas terra incognita, Europe now paves its way through the Solar System by means of robotic exploration. The highly successful orbiters at Mars and Venus, landing on alien Titan, currently developed missions to Mercury, and planned voyages to the giant planets mark the major steps of the Europe’s exploration of the Solar System. In the Sir David Bates medal lecture I will try to give a retrospective of major results in the planetary exploration. |