It looks like ESA has new partner with NASA so maybe NASA will replace the Russian lander named 'Kazachok' it is an international mission with wheels manufactured by MDA Corporation in Canada
The Russian section of the mission might have been doomed to fail anyways with Russia's failed Luna-25 showing at the Moon
'2028' date
https://www.esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Vide … klin_rover
ESA’s Rosalind Franklin rover has unique scientific potential to search for evidence of past life on Mars thanks to its drill and scientific instruments. It will be the first rover to reach a depth of up to two metres deep below the surface, acquiring samples that have been protected from surface radiation and extreme temperatures. The drill will retrieve soils from ancient parts of Mars and analyse them in situ with its onboard laboratory.
Rockets?
There are rockets that can get the rover to mars.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compariso … ch_systems
Falcon 9 Full Thrust expendable can do it but the heavy has room to ensure that it more than can.
ESA had SpaceX Falcon 9 deliver 'Euclid' to space from Cape Canaveral in July 2023
]]>https://spacenews.com/ohb-expects-first … arly-2024/
ESA expects that a restart of the mission, using a new non-Russian landing platform, is unlikely to launch before 2028
https://spacenews.com/exomars-official- … fore-2028/
ExoMars: Europe's astrobiology missions to Mars
https://www.space.com/34664-exomars-facts.html
Rosalind Franklin will be Europe's first Mars rover. It is equipped with a drill that can dig about 6.5 feet (2 meters) into the ground, according to ESA.
A year has passed since the launch of the ESA's Rosalind Franklin rover mission was put on hold, but the work has not stopped for the ExoMars teams in Europe.
In this programme, the ESA Web TV crew travel back to Turin, Italy to talk to the teams and watch as new tests are being conducted with the rover's Earth twin Amalia while the real rover remains carefully stored in an ultra-clean room.
The 15-minute special programme gives an update on what happened since the mission was cancelled in 2022 because of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the plan ahead, the new challenges, the latest deep drilling test and the stringent planetary protection measures in place.
ESA's Rosalind Franklin rover has unique drilling capabilities and an on-board science laboratory unrivalled by any other mission in development. Its twin rover Amalia was back on its wheels and drilled down 1.7 metres into a martian-like ground in Italy - about 25 times deeper than any other rover has ever attempted on Mars. The rover also collected samples for analysis under the watchful eye of European science teams.
ESA, together with international and industrial partners, is reshaping the ExoMars Rosalind Franklin Mission with new European elements, including a lander, and a target date of 2028 for the trip to Mars.
The newly shaped Rosalind Franklin Mission will recover one of the original objectives of ExoMars - to create an independent European capability to access the surface of Mars with a sophisticated robotic payload.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compariso … ch_systems
Falcon 9 Full Thrust expendable can do it but the heavy has room to ensure that it more than can.
]]>'Europe's mission to Mars could be on hold for years due to Ukraine war, Sky News told'
https://news.sky.com/story/europes-miss … d-12606098
The Ukraine war is not the first setback the ExoMars mission has faced - it was supposed to be launched back in 2018.
"ExoMars official says launch unlikely before 2028"
]]>The European Space Agency is continuing discussions with NASA on how the agencies can work together to revive ESA’s ExoMars mission after ending cooperation with Russia.
ESA announced March 17 it halted plans to launch the mission, featuring a European-built rover, in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Russia was to launch the mission on a Proton rocket and provide a landing platform and other components.
“It was not an easy decision,” Josef Aschbacher, director general of ESA, said during a panel of space agency leaders at the 37th Space Symposium April 6. Scientists and engineers had worked for years on the mission and the rover now is nearly complete. At the time of the decision to suspend work with Russia, it being prepared to ship to the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
He thanked NASA for contacting ESA and offering assistance on ExoMars, adding in a later interview that discussions between the agencies are continuing. “Our teams are working with the teams in NASA about the technical steps that need to be done,” he said.
The agencies are looking at options for replacing the Russian elements of ExoMars, such as the launch vehicle and landing platform. Other components that Russia was providing were radioisotope heating units to keep the rover warm at night, a technology commonly used by NASA but which for ESA is much less mature.
Another option ESA is pursuing is to replace Russian components with European ones. Aschbacher said studies are ongoing on technical and financial aspects of both strategies, which should be completed by June. “By July, I expect to have a decision from my member states,” he said, which would become part of the package for ESA’s ministerial meeting late this year.
ESA is also studying options for launching missions that were to fly on Soyuz rockets from French Guiana that were stranded by Russia’s decision in February to halt such launches. Those missions include two pairs of Galileo navigation satellites, two ESA science missions and a French reconnaissance satellite.
Aschbacher said ESA is study ways to launch those satellites using Ariane 6 and Vega C launch vehicles, both of which are scheduled to make their inaugural launches this year. That will depend in part on an ongoing assessment of ramping up Ariane 6 launches expected to be done in a month. At that point, he said ESA will be able to better determine how to launch those payloads.
“One option might be that we have to look, for a limited period of time, at backup launcher options,” he said, which would include non-European launch vehicles. “I would expect this would be a very limited period where we would need such solutions and then we can fully rely on Ariane 6.”
Aschbacher, like NASA officials, said that International Space Station operations remain unaffected by the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and that ESA was preparing proposals to extend its role on the ISS through 2030. “We’re working toward the normal continuation of the operations of the ISS.”
]]>ESA's Rover and Sample Return Delayed
ESA suspends work with Russia on ExoMars mission
https://spacenews.com/esa-suspends-work … s-mission/
QUOTE
“We deeply deplore the human casualties and tragic consequences of the aggression towards Ukraine,” ESA said in the statement. “While recognizing the impact on scientific exploration of space, ESA is fully aligned with the sanctions imposed on Russia by its Member States.”
“The decision was made that this launch cannot happen given the current circumstances,” ESA Director-General Josef Aschbacher said at a briefing March 17, citing the sanctions imposed by European nations on Russia. “This makes it practically impossible but also politically impossible to have a launch in September.
The announcement was all but inevitable after ESA announced Feb. 28 that it was “very unlikely” it would go forward with the late September launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan because of the sanctions imposed on Russia in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
“It’s a disappointment for the people involved in the project,” said David Parker, head of human and robotic exploration at ESA, noting the years they put into the mission. “It was an agonizing decision for the council to make.”
A new plan for ExoMars would involve more than replacing the Proton rocket. Russia also built a landing platform called Kazachok that would have to be replaced. The rover itself includes Russian instruments and radioisotope heating units supplied by Russia.
The council instructed Aschbacher to start a “fast-track industrial study” to look at alternatives for launching the mission, which will place the European-built Rosalind Franklin rover on Mars. “What we really need to do is to look into these options,” he said. “The options in terms of Europe alone or Europe with other partners.”
One option, Aschbacher said, was renewed cooperation with NASA. ESA originally planned to cooperate with NASA on the ExoMars program, but turned to Russia a decade ago when NASA pulled out of the program. “Cooperation with NASA is an option we’ll look into,” he said. “NASA has expressed its very strong willingness to support us.”
]]>N° 6–2022: ESA statement
https://www.esa.int/Newsroom/Press_Rele … ruary_2022
28 February 2022
We deplore the human casualties and tragic consequences of the war in Ukraine. We are giving absolute priority to taking proper decisions, not only for the sake of our workforce involved in the programmes, but in full respect of our European values, which have always fundamentally shaped our approach to international cooperation.
ESA is an intergovernmental organisation governed by its 22 Member States and we have built up a strong network of international cooperation over the past decades, which serves the European and global space community through its very successful programmes.
We are fully implementing sanctions imposed on Russia by our Member States. We are assessing the consequences on each of our ongoing programmes conducted in cooperation with the Russian state space agency Roscosmos and align our decisions to the decisions of our Member States in close coordination with industrial and international partners (in particular with NASA on the International Space Station).
Regarding the Soyuz launch campaign from Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, we take note of the Roscosmos decision to withdraw its workforce from Kourou. We will consequently assess for each European institutional payload under our responsibility the appropriate launch service based notably on launch systems currently in operation and the upcoming Vega-C and Ariane 6 launchers.
Regarding the ExoMars programme continuation, the sanctions and the wider context make a launch in 2022 very unlikely. ESA’s Director General will analyse all the options and prepare a formal decision on the way forward by ESA Member States.
ESA continues to monitor the situation in close contact with its Members States.
Thanks for you hint to look for where the Exomars rover might be ... your guess as to location was ** so !!! ** close !!!
Get this (per Google):
ExoMars had been targeting a 12-day launch window opening on September 20. Because of how the orbits of Earth and Mars align, spacecraft can easily launch to the Red Planet only every 26 months. Currently, the spacecraft is undergoing tests in Turin, Italy; it was scheduled to travel to Russia in April.
Quaoar can possibly pay the probe a visit, depending upon distance to the work site. It is likely to be sitting there for a while.
(th)
]]>As for the mentioning of the ISS reboost by Northrup Gruman, The Cygnus extended version has performed that function in the past when it was launch of the Atlas V before it got sold from ATK.
edit
its good that I was way off...
so there is a chance even with Russian equipment on it to send it on its way.
]]>https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/eu … hp&pc=U531
The article provides some (a little) detail about the impact of Ukraine on planning for launch in September.
The first thought that occurred to me is that there is still time for the proposal of GW Johnson to launch in September, but whoever takes that one has very little time left.
(th)
]]>ESA so far had 2 Lander Failures but let's hope this Rover works, part of ESA's larger plan for a sample return or 'Aurora Program' or eventual Mars Sample Return (MSR) mission. The second part of the programme was planned to launch in 2020, when the lander would have delivered the rover on the surface. ESA had two lander failures but has two sucessful Orbiters the Trace Gas Orbiter and Mars Express in sucessful operation. It was launched on a Proton rocket from Baikonur, the Russian Roscosmos State Corporation built the "Little Cossack" lander and ESA's Rover is expected to drive off this lander and explore Mars.
Video: Rover escapes from sand trap in Mars terrain simulator
https://phys.org/news/2021-12-video-rov … rrain.html
ESA's Rosalind Franklin twin rover on Earth has drilled down and extracted samples 1.7 metres into the ground - much deeper than any other martian rover has ever attempted.
Rosalind Franklin's drill works on rotation. A series of tools and extension rods are fitted to form a 'drill string' and can reach the full 2m length when all are connected.
The drill can penetrate the ground at 60 rotations per minute, depending on the consistency of the soil. Digging into sandy or clay solid materials could take between 0.3 and 30 mm per minute.
The drill has also a two-degree of freedom positioner that allows it to discharge the sample at the right angle into the rover laboratory.
The deepest drilling on Mars has reached only about 2.8 inches (7 centimeters). ESA's rover is designed to dig in up to 6.5 feet (2 meters), grab a small soil sample and then bring it back up to an onboard laboratory for analysis.