The ExoMars programme was imperilled after the European Space Agency cut ties with its former partner Russia.
, before relations with Russia deteriorated. The cost of the delay from 2020 to 2022 was on the order of €100 million, an ESA spokesperson toldDespite its delays and burgeoning costs, scientists remain excited about the ExoMars mission, which is the second part of a programme that includes an orbiter thatand has been hunting for biological or geological origins of methane and other gases.
“ExoMars is a really incredible mission that will be unique in method and scientific approach, even if launched in 2028,” says Francesca Esposito, a planetary scientist at the INAF Astronomical Observatory of Capdiomonte in Naples, Italy, and member of the mission. ESA expects that NASA will help by contributing the mission’s launcher, its braking engine, for use during landing, and its radioisotope heating units, said ESA director-general Josef Aschbacher, speaking at the press briefing after the conference. The latter is necessary for Rosalind Franklin to survive the harsh Martian nights. But European technology will replace the rest of Russia’s lost contribution, he said.
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