"The European Space Agency's long-delayed Rosalind Franklin rover has received a boost with confirmation that NASA is staying in the project. During Director General Josef Achbacher's speech at the agency's Ministerial meeting, where funding is debated and projects proposed and selected, he said [PDF]: "Just yesterday, I received very good news from NASA to confirm their contribution to the Rosalind Franklin Mission.""
"An ESA insider described the ExoMars project as "snakebit." The project initially had NASA as a partner, but the US space agency walked away after budget cuts. This left the Russian space agency, Roscosmos, to plug the gap and provide a launcher and lander for the rover. A 2018 launch was delayed due to technical problems with the hardware, and another attempt in 2020 was also called off after issues cropped up with the parachutes."
"For a while, it looked like ESA might finally throw in the towel on the project. The rover was complete, but needed a new ride and lander for its trip to Mars. In 2024, a deal was signed to replace the missing components, including NASA contributions such as radioisotope heater units (RHUs) for the rover, throttleable braking engines for the lander, and launch services."
NASA has confirmed continued contribution to the Rosalind Franklin ExoMars rover, preserving key hardware and support. The mission plans to send a rover to Mars to drill up to two meters seeking underground biomarkers. The ExoMars program suffered repeated delays after NASA initially withdrew, then relied on Roscosmos for a launcher and lander, but parachute and hardware failures postponed launches in 2018 and 2020. ESA halted cooperation after Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine. A 2024 agreement replaced missing components with new partners and NASA-provided items like RHUs, throttleable braking engines, and launch services, and a 2028 launch was targeted.
Read at Theregister
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]