In a few months, the first Mars rover of the European space agency should start to Mars. But nothing will come of it, Putin’s attack on Ukraine is to blame.
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War in Ukraine endangers first European Mars rover
© ESA
Russian attack on Ukraine threatens ExoMars rover exploration of Red Planet Because the ExoMars Rover is a joint project of the European Space Agency ESA and the Russian space agency Roskosmos. In the project, a rocket is to fly to the planet Mars to drop off the rover there. This ExoMars rover will then search for signs of life on the red planet and, among other things, take soil samples from a depth of up to two meters. Unlike the NASA Mars rover Perseverance, however, the drill core samples are not to be brought to Earth for further evaluation, but the European Mars rover is to analyze them on site.
The previous plan
According to the previous planning, the cooperation looks like this: The Mars rover starts from the Russian space station Baikonur in Kazakhstan on board a Russian Proton rocket. Roskosmos also supplies the landing unit for the rover and two measuring instruments on board the rover. ESA in turn builds the ExoMars rover and monitors the mission from its control center in Darmstadt, the rover will later be controlled by the Rover Operations Control Center (ROCC) in Turin.
According to previous plans, the Proton rocket with the ExoMars rover is to be launched between August and October 2022 and reach Mars after nine months of flight. September 20, 2022 is targeted as the specific start time.
Putin’s attack upsets everything
However, the ESA has now announced that a launch of the Proton rocket in 2022 has become unlikely. The ESA fully takes over the sanctions of the EU states directed against Russia. ESA assesses the impact on each of its ongoing programmes, carried out in cooperation with the Russian state space agency Roskosmos, and aligns its decisions with those of its member states, in close consultation with industrial and international partners (particularly with NASA on the International Space Station). . As for the continuation of the ExoMars program, a launch in 2022 is very unlikely due to the sanctions and the general environment. The Director General of ESA will analyze all options and prepare a formal decision on how ESA member states should proceed.
If Russia refuses to fly the European Mars rover with a Proton rocket to Mars as a counter-sanction, so to speak, and also withdraws its landing unit for the Mars rover, then the entire ambitious Mars project of ESA would (for the time being) no longer be feasible. The ESA would then first have to procure a replacement, which could take years. Especially since a certain time window must also be taken into account for the launch of a rocket to Mars: The launch can only take place when Earth and Mars are relatively close.
Roscosmos had previously
announced
to withdraw its employees on the Soyuz program from the European spaceport in Kourou (French Guiana). These Russian employees help launch Soyuz rockets from Baikonur.
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