Things in space move slowly, and in the case of the ExoMars mission of the European Space Agency (ESA), even more. The objective of put a European rover on the surface of Marsdates back to 2001. If all goes well it will become a reality… in 2028.
The ESA rover should have already been roaming the Martian soil from 2022. It was a joint mission with Russia, but the invasion of Ukraine that same year shattered the dream into a thousand pieces.
The European Union canceled relations with Russia, and the joint mission was postponed. Now NASA is coming to our aid to replace the Russian agency Roscosmos, but the launch to Mars will not take place until 2028. Why?
The dream of a European rover on Martian soil
The mission ExoMars It began to take shape in 2001. After allocating budget, ESA partnered with Roscosmos, back in the good old days when the Russians were allies in space.
The mission was to be carried out in two parts. The first was already completed in 2016, when an ESA orbiter was sent to Mars, along with Schiaparelli, a landing preparation system, to verify that it was possible.
The rover was scheduled to ship in 2020, but was delayed to 2022 due to development issues. Just when the mission was going to start… the invasion of Ukraine occurred. Europe broke with Russia, and the mission was cancelled.
At the end of 2022, the budget was allocated again, but it has not been until now that who will replace the Russian agency has been chosen. There are not many other options: NASA.
The underlying problem is that ESA could have used its own rocket, the Ariane 6… which is years behind schedule. With the Ariane 5 retired, the only option is NASA.
Yesterday, in a statement, ESA announced the agreement with the US agency. The launch will occur in 2028.
You are probably wondering Why will the ExoMars mission take so long to resume, if it was already about to take off?. The reason is that Russia was not only supplying the Soyuz rocket that would put the ExoMars spacecraft into orbit. It also manufactured some parts of the rover.
When the agreement was cancelled, The Rosalind Franklin rover had to be redesigned almost from scratch. It is named after Rosalind Franklin, a British chemist who made key discoveries about DNA and graphite, the predecessor of graphene. Tragically, she died at just 37 years old, from cancer.
It must be said that the United Kingdom is still a member of the ESA, there has been no Brexit here, since it is an independent body. For example, Spain has been a member of the ESA since 1979, but did not join the EU until 1985.
In these four years, ESA is going to design a new rover and reconfigure the mission to adapt to NASA parameters. It’s an important mission, and it has to go right the first time.
27 years will pass since the ExoMars mission began to take shape, until Europe sees its dream of putting a rover on Mars fulfilled in 2028. Better late than never…
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Tags: NASA, Curiosities
