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Mars_B4_Moon

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Registered: 2006-03-23

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Re: ExoMars

Joint Europe-Russia Mars rover project is parked: The decision has been made. Europe's Mars rover will not be flying to the Red Planet this year.
https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-60782932

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.”

Last edited by Mars_B4_Moon (2022-03-18 07:15:04)

Mars_B4_Moon

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Registered: 2006-03-23

Posts: 9,776

Re: ExoMars

ESA continues talks with NASA on ExoMars cooperation
https://spacenews.com/esa-continues-tal … operation/

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.”

Mars_B4_Moon

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Registered: 2006-03-23

Posts: 9,776

Re: ExoMars

Russia is out, the Kazachok lander would have delivered the Rosalind Franklin rover on the surface. Can they go to NASA maybe China or maybe the US Private Sector Musk Space-X for a lander?

'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"

https://spacenews.com/exomars-official- … fore-2028/

Last edited by Mars_B4_Moon (2022-05-07 09:39:16)

SpaceNut

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From: New Hampshire

Registered: 2004-07-22

Posts: 29,433

Re: ExoMars

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.

Mars_B4_Moon

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Registered: 2006-03-23

Posts: 9,776

Re: ExoMars

ExoMars: Back on track for the Red Planet
https://www.marsdaily.com/reports/ExoMa … t_999.html

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.

Mars_B4_Moon

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Registered: 2006-03-23

Posts: 9,776

Re: ExoMars

SOPHIA: A mineralogical simulant for phyllosilicate terrains at the Rosalind Franklin landing site, Oxia Planum, Mars

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/a … 3523001458

Mars_B4_Moon

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Registered: 2006-03-23

Posts: 9,776

Re: ExoMars

OHB expects first Ariane 6 launch in early 2024

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.

Mars_B4_Moon

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Registered: 2006-03-23

Posts: 9,776

Re: ExoMars

Finally an update,  Oxia Planum was chosen as the preferred landing site with Aram Dorsum and Mawrth Vallis as backup options. the mission has been delayed many times, problems with parachute and then Russia’s invasion of Ukraine where Europe put sanctions on russia and the ESA formally terminated the Mars mission’s cooperation with Roscosmos

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://nextspaceflight.com/launches/details/2008

Last edited by Mars_B4_Moon (2023-12-13 16:03:13)

SpaceNut

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From: New Hampshire

Registered: 2004-07-22

Posts: 29,433

Re: ExoMars

NASA Steps in to Get ESA's ExoMars Rover to the Red Planet

The Russian Kazachok lander was expected to clock in at 827.9 kg (1,825 lb), and the rover is 310 kg (680 lb). Assuming the Thales Alenia version is similar, that's well within the payload limit of a Falcon 9 on a Mars transfer trajectory. A ULA Vulcan Centaur would also have enough power, but the company hasn't discussed Mars launches yet. A lot can change in four years, though.