A joint Russian-European mission to send a rover to Mars is likely to be postponed following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The € 1.3 billion ExoMars programme, almost a decade in the making, is a joint mission between the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Russian space agency Roscosmos, the goal of which is to send a rover to Mars.
The rover is equipped with a 2-metre drill designed to detect signs of organic life buried beneath Mar’s surface. It was due to be launched on a Russian rocket from a site in Kazakhstan in September. However, following a meeting of ESA member states it was announced that sanctions imposed on Russia and wider considerations surrounding the war in Ukraine had rendered the launch unlikely.
The ESA said in a statement that it deplored “the human casualties and tragic consequences of the war in Ukraine” and that the decision regarding the likely delay has as much to do with sanctions affecting its workforce as its European values.
Paul Byrne, planetary scientist as Washington University, called the delay “painful” for the scientific community but that not flying the rover on a Russian rocket is “the morally right thing to do”.
Member of the ExoMars collaboration, Oleg Korablev, said that adapting the craft to use a NASA landing device would take more than two years as it has been specifically designed for the Russian-made descent module and landing platform.
Lev Zelenyi, former president of the Space Research Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow, said that while he understands the ESA’s motivations, he beliefs it is the wrong decision.
“If it will not be launched this year, it will not be launched ever” he said, adding that “Tremendous efforts of scientists, engineers, technicians of many European countries, not even speaking about Russians, will be wasted”.