The top of Europe’s space agency says a brand new Red Planet lander is coming for the much-delayed ExoMars mission.
Josef Aschbacher, the director general of the European Space Agency (ESA), says the agency will soon release a contract opportunity to design the ExoMars mission’s lander, to interchange the Russian one lost when their partnership severed in 2022.
“We are going to issue a contract for the event of the lander, and this can exit soon, in the following few months or so,” Aschbacher told Space.com July 1, hours after the Euclid “dark universe” mission launched here. “That is all in full preparation.”
The European Space Agency’s Mars mission is now expected to launch no sooner than 2028, eight years past its original expectation. That is because of each technical problems and the lack of Russia following the unsanctioned and internationally condemned invasion of Ukraine last 12 months.
Related: Europe’s record-breaking space budget to save lots of beleaguered ExoMars rover
ExoMars was originally set to depart Earth in 2020, but was delayed because of issues with the parachute system for the Russian lander and the pandemic, amongst other items. Then, when Russia and ESA severed their partnership in early 2022 following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the Rosalind Franklin rover was left with neither a lander nor a rocket; each were expected to be provided by Russia.
The rover is designed to drill for signs of Martian life much deeper than NASA’s Perseverance can reach. It is believed that microbes is likely to be higher suited to the Martian underground, where they might be protected against the ultraviolet radiation and solar wind that pummels the Red Planet’s surface.
To save lots of the mission, ESA representatives recently approved a record-breaking budget of 16.9 billion Euros ($17.6 billion) over three years, which incorporates 360 million Euros for ExoMars.
NASA may contribute a braking engine, radioisotope heating units to fight back against the Martian cold and possibly a launcher, Aschbacher said in news reports last November. (ESA prefers to make use of European rockets where possible, nevertheless.)
The White House’s 2024 budget request, released in March 2023, included mention of a NASA contribution to ExoMars with no specific amounts allocated. Aschbacher told Space.com on July 1 that the most recent he’s heard is that negotiations are ongoing. ESA, he said, is hoping for “a small amount” of cash from NASA.
The multi-mission ExoMars also includes the Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO), which launched to Mars in 2016. Its goal is to look for less abundant compounds within the carbon dioxide-heavy Mars atmosphere, including methane (which can signal life or not, depending on the method that created it).
TGO also brought a demonstrator mission to Mars called the Schiaparelli Entry, Descent and Landing Demonstrator Module (EDM), which crashed upon landing.