At the Mars exploration project analysis team meeting held on Tuesday local time, the European Space Agency Jorge vago, an ExoMars scientist, said that ESA was currently considering various options and would soon submit a feasible plan to Member States.
The ExoMars project was originally developed by the European Space Agency in cooperation with Russia. For now, if the European Space Agency continues to use the [Rover] named Rosalind Franklin( https://news.163.com/news/search?keyword=%E7%81%AB%E6%98%9F%E8%BD%A6 ) Sending to Mars requires a lot of money to find alternative systems for several technologies developed by the Russian space agency. The ExoMars rover was originally planned to cost $1.37 billion and was scheduled to launch in September 2022. Now we need a new landing platform, a new rocket and several other technologies originally provided by the Russian space agency.
"In July this year, we will put forward suggestions and directions to Member States," Vigo said "This proposal will predict the financial cost of ExoMars."
The European Space Agency officially stopped its cooperation with Russia in March this year. After a significant delay and exceeding the budget compared with the original plan, the ExoMars project was already on the track of launch, and now it may become the biggest victim of the cessation of cooperation between the two sides.
The Russian space agency plans to launch the rover with a proton rocket at the Baikonur space launch site in Kazakhstan. The Russian space agency has also built a Kazakh landing platform for the ExoMars rover, which can not only send the rover to the Martian surface, but also carry out scientific research projects at the landing site.
Vigo said that although ESA has most of the technology to build its own landing platform, it will seek to obtain some technologies from NASA that cannot be produced in the region at present.
"We don't have the kind of descent engine we can use," Viggo said. "We will use the same type of devices that carry curiosity or perseverance rovers, but perhaps less engines. Another thing we need to replace is radioactive heating, which we don't have in Europe."
However, it takes time to rebuild the landing platform and reconfigure the mission. Viggo said that if the mission continues, the launch is unlikely to take place before 2028.
"We can cooperate with the Russian space agency to launch the rover with a proton rocket in 2024, but now it seems that I think this possibility is getting smaller and smaller," he said "2026 is theoretically possible, but in practice, we think we can reconfigure and produce [lander] by ourselves( https://news.163.com/news/search?keyword=%E7%9D%80%E9%99%86%E5%99%A8 ) Very difficult. So it's more realistic for the rover to launch in 2028. Even so, it still needs some help from NASA. "
It should be clear that the launch window of the Mars mission only opens every 26 months.
NASA was the initial partner of the European Space Agency in the ExoMars project, but after the Obama administration cut its budget, NASA chose to withdraw from the project in 2012. Subsequently, the Russian space agency joined the project and filled the vacancy.
The launch date in 2028 means that the ExoMars rover will arrive on Mars 10 years later than originally planned. The mission was originally scheduled to launch in 2018, but was postponed due to problems with the landing parachute.
Another delay in the project means that the time interval between the ExoMars Rover's arrival on Mars and the sample return mission will not be very long. Even so, astrobiologists still think the ExoMars rover is valuable because it is equipped with a two meter long drill bit that can collect samples from deep on the surface of Mars. Scientists believe that this is more likely to collect traces of life on Mars in the past or now.
Due to the lack of magnetic field protection and the thin atmosphere, Mars is constantly impacted by the solar wind, and the earth's surface is desolate. NASA's perseverance rover has begun collecting samples for the sample return mission, but its drill bit is much shorter than ExoMars and cannot reach that deep. (Chen Chen)