ESA ExoMars rover

View: https://twitter.com/jeff_foust/status/1595419793431343105


Aschbacher: exploration budget includes funding for ISS operations, EL3 lunar cargo lander, and ExoMars. Expect NASA to contribute to ExoMars launcher, braking engine and RHUs (radioisotope heating units.)
View: https://twitter.com/bbcamos/status/1595402742016638976


Rosalind Franklin. Fully funded. €360m. To start work on a landing system. #CM23

Good news, now get the rover to Mars.
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=91dW9pUA1BI

That brings back memories siegecrossbow.
 
Aschbacher said Wednesday that European ministers considered a number of options, including simply putting the completed Rosalind Franklin rover into a museum. However, in the end, ministers decided that they would invest hundreds of millions of more euro into the project for Europe to develop its own entry, descent, and lander module for the vehicle.

"I am very glad to say that we have found a positive way forward," Aschbacher said. "Europe will take responsibility, and a majority of the work will be done with European technology."

NASA, he said, is expected to contribute a rocket for the mission, an engine for the descent module with adjustable thrust, and radioactive heating units. This exchange will be done via barter. So, for example, in exchange for a rocket launch, Europe might provide an Airbus Beluga aircraft to transport large cargo.

The mission now has a launch date of no earlier than 2028, Aschbacher said. At this time, the only available US rocket capable of boosting the mission is SpaceX's Falcon Heavy booster, but the competition for the launch vehicle will not be held for a couple of years. At that time United Launch Alliance's Vulcan rocket and SpaceX's Starship may be options, as well as Blue Origin's New Glenn vehicle.

What's more, the science that Rosalind Franklin will do is still seen as compelling.
The robot will look for signs of life on Mars, and will carry a drill to try to find it up to 2m below the planet's surface. If biology does still exist, this is where researchers would expect it to be found - underground.
"Rosalind Franklin is a huge project," said UK science minister George Freeman.
"It's a Mars rover built in the UK. We now need to finalise the propulsion and landing system, and there are major supply chain opportunities for British companies in this.
"Think about it - we will be at the forefront of that signal coming back from Mars about the origins of life. You can't get more exciting, more inspiring, and more cutting-edge than that."
 
Aschbacher said Wednesday that European ministers considered a number of options, including simply putting the completed Rosalind Franklin rover into a museum. However, in the end, ministers decided that they would invest hundreds of millions of more euro into the project for Europe to develop its own entry, descent, and lander module for the vehicle.

"I am very glad to say that we have found a positive way forward," Aschbacher said. "Europe will take responsibility, and a majority of the work will be done with European technology."

NASA, he said, is expected to contribute a rocket for the mission, an engine for the descent module with adjustable thrust, and radioactive heating units. This exchange will be done via barter. So, for example, in exchange for a rocket launch, Europe might provide an Airbus Beluga aircraft to transport large cargo.

The mission now has a launch date of no earlier than 2028, Aschbacher said. At this time, the only available US rocket capable of boosting the mission is SpaceX's Falcon Heavy booster, but the competition for the launch vehicle will not be held for a couple of years. At that time United Launch Alliance's Vulcan rocket and SpaceX's Starship may be options, as well as Blue Origin's New Glenn vehicle.

What's more, the science that Rosalind Franklin will do is still seen as compelling.
The robot will look for signs of life on Mars, and will carry a drill to try to find it up to 2m below the planet's surface. If biology does still exist, this is where researchers would expect it to be found - underground.
"Rosalind Franklin is a huge project," said UK science minister George Freeman.
"It's a Mars rover built in the UK. We now need to finalise the propulsion and landing system, and there are major supply chain opportunities for British companies in this.
"Think about it - we will be at the forefront of that signal coming back from Mars about the origins of life. You can't get more exciting, more inspiring, and more cutting-edge than that."

Any idea as to what rocket will be tasked with the launching of the Rosalind Franklin rover to Mars? I cannot see it being the Ariane 6 that is for sure.
 
ESA’s ExoMars plans depend on NASA contributions

An industry source, speaking on background, said the launch will be the most expensive contribution, with the overall NASA contribution likely on the order of a couple hundred million dollars. NASA is expected, in turn, to seek opportunities for U.S. scientists to participate on ExoMars in exchange for that contribution.
Aschbacher said at the briefing that those planned NASA contributions were pending an agreement yet to be finalized between the agencies. “Their contribution still needs to be confirmed because they waited for our decision today,” he said.

NASA has not publicly commented on its plans for ExoMars since the ministerial meeting, and an agency spokesperson did not respond to questions Nov. 23 about NASA’s plans for the mission.

 
About time too, at least the contract has now been signed. Next stop chosing a suitable landing site and then getting the rover to Mars. :cool:
 
View: https://twitter.com/spacegovuk/status/1777693794164514859


@ESA_ExoMars
Episode 1 – Scouting the Red Planet.

Follow the adventures of the #RosalindFranklin rover as it begins its mission on Mars in 2030. Its wheels are made for walking, and its eyes for science.

Watch the first chapter of Europe’s ambitious exploration journey to search for past and present signs of life on Mars.



ESA_ExoMars

@ESA_ExoMars
Episode 1 – Scouting the Red Planet.

Follow the adventures of the #RosalindFranklin rover as it begins its mission on Mars in 2030. Its wheels are made for walking, and its eyes for science.

Watch the first chapter of Europe’s ambitious exploration journey to search for past and present signs of life on Mars.

 
NASA and ESA have reached a formal agreement on continuing ExoMars. Looks like one stipulation is that since the US is giving the plutonium, the launch must be by a US launcher. NASA probably owe ESA after screwing them over in 2011by pulling out of an agreement leaving ESA hanging.

 
Brilliant news and about time too for ExoMars NASA and ESA reaching a formal agreement is a step forward. All they need to do now is to fund the mission.
 

 
Airbus wins contract for ExoMars lander platform

WASHINGTON — Airbus Defence and Space will build the landing platform for the European Space Agency’s ExoMars rover, replacing a critical component originally to be provided by Russia.

Airbus announced late March 28 (Eastern time) that it was selected by ESA and Thales Alenia Space, the prime contractor for the mission, to build the landing platform for that rover mission, scheduled to launch in 2028.
Airbus did not disclose the value of the contract, but the U.K. government stated it was worth £150 million ($194 million). ESA awarded a contract worth 522 million euros ($565 million) to Thales Alenia Space in April 2024 to restart work on the mission, which was paused in March 2022 weeks after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Russia was to provide the landing platform as well as launch the mission on a Proton rocket.

 
At last ExoMars is at last moving forward in the right direction, good news for Airbus winning the contract for the lander platform.
 
Then there are the international partnerships, which have treated the ExoMars program so badly.

The Trump administration is poised to push NASA's exploration program to focus on Mars, and that will likely entail sending SpaceX Starships to the red planet with increasing frequency. SpaceX is aiming for the 2026 launch window for Mars and certainly will be targeting one or more Starships for late 2028. Will NASA, citing redundancy with Starship missions, pull the plug on ExoMars again?

With ExoMars, the only certainty is to expect the unexpected.
 
Nearly two decades have passed since the European Space Agency formally committed to funding the ExoMars mission at a ministerial meeting in December 2005.

I don't understand why a society which is as old and established as Europe remains unable to catch up with this comparatively young upstart adolescent of a society that I live in, the USA.

(or is "Europe" not one society but rather a cobbled together patchwork of egos and self-interests that's just barely hidden under a thin and thinning veneer of expediency?)
 
I don't understand why a society which is as old and established as Europe remains unable to catch up with this comparatively young upstart adolescent of a society that I live in, the USA.

(or is "Europe" not one society but rather a cobbled together patchwork of egos and self-interests that's just barely hidden under a thin and thinning veneer of expediency?)
We don't want to catch up, thank you. USA is not a model, but a dead-end (wich will unfortunately kill all of mankind).
 

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