After a saga of broken promises, European rover finally embarks on journey to Mars

Instead, the agency Turn to Russia Two Proton rockets are used to launch the orbiter and rover and provide a descent system to transport the rover to Mars. In exchange, ESA agreed to add Russian scientific instruments to orbiter and rover missions. This is good news for Russian scientific institutions. Without international partners like ExoMars, they lack realistic prospects of sending their own research payloads to the Red Planet.

Russia Successfully started In 2016, the European-made ExoMars trace gas orbiter was mounted on a Proton rocket. The orbiter still orbits Mars, returning scientific data and serving as a communications relay for NASA’s Curiosity and Perseverance rovers. Small European technology demonstration probe on orbiter crashed After arriving at the red planet.

Artist’s illustration of the Rosalind Franklin rover leaving the Mars landing platform.

Image source: Airbus

More delays pushed the launch of the ExoMars rover from 2018 to 2020. The rover, named after the late British chemist and DNA research pioneer Rosalind Franklin, was almost ready for launch in 2020 when a series of Parachute test failed The COVID-19 pandemic has caused another postponement to the end of 2022.

When Russian troops invaded Ukraine in February 2022, everything changed again. ESA severed most ties with Roscosmos, ending its partnership on ExoMars after all mission components, including the Russian rocket and Mars descent stage, were built and ready for final assembly. ESA also removed two Russian scientific instruments from the mission.

again, US government intervenes Heading to Mars aboard the Rosalind Franklin rover. NASA and ESA formally signed a new agreement in 2024. The United States promised to provide a launch vehicle, a brake engine required for landing, and a small nuclear-powered heater to keep the rover’s sensitive electronic equipment warm during the Martian night. NASA long ago provided the European rover with a mass spectrometer that will analyze Martian soil for signatures of organic molecules.

ESA is providing the rover and launch spacecraft to transport it to Mars. Europe is also responsible for the overall assembly of the landing platform and the operation of the rover on the Martian surface. Airbus built the rover in the UK and provides the main structure for the lander, which will land on Mars, and deploys the ramp for the rover to land and begin its mission. German company OHB built the launch vehicle, or cruise stage, to guide the rover from Earth to Mars. Italy’s Thales Alenia Space is responsible for putting all the parts together and getting them ready for launch.