A Friday report from BBC has revealed that Russia has received a formal invitation from Europe for participation in financially-plagued unmanned space missions to Mars scheduled for a 2016 and 2018 timeline --- the first mission to put a satellite in orbit for observing the Martian atmosphere; and the second for landing a robot rover on the surface of the Red planet.

According to the report, since both the projects - known as ExoMars in Europe - face a potential cancellation due to shortage of funds, the consent from the Russian space agency, Roscosmos, is seemingly the only way in which the missions will be able to move forward.

Both the projects have jointly been planned by the European and the US space agencies - ESA and NASA respectively -, and the agencies are aware that Roscosmos' interest in the projects will largely be based on a significant degree of participation.

In the opinion of ESA and NASA officials, the in-kind return for Roscosmos will chiefly involve the chance for providing instrumentation and technology for the projects, as well as an opportunity for its researchers seek inclusion in the science teams.

Revealing that "everything is open for discussion," Alvaro Gimenez - ESA's director of science - told BBC News: "There are possibilities for the Russians to contribute to the rover; there may also be possibilities for them to contribute to the payload on the orbiter."