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- Recently, the European Space Agency (ESA) deferred the launch of ExoMars 2022 after the agency suspended all cooperation with Russia’s space program Roscosmos.
About
- Aim:
- To study past life on Mars.
- Collaboration of:
- Roscosmos and the European Space Agency (ESA)
- Origin:
- ESA and NASA were the original ExoMars collaborators, but NASA dropped out in 2012 due to budgeting problems.
- Russia took NASA’s place in the project in 2013.
- A two-stage mission:
- Trace Gas Orbiter and a Lander – Launched in 2016 using Russian-made Proton-M rocket, but the lander crashed.
- Consists of a rover and surface platform – awaiting confirmation for launch.
- Objectives:
- To land the rover at a site with high potential for finding well-preserved organic material, particularly from the very early history of the planet.
- Rover will collect samples with a drill down to a depth of 2 m and analyse them with next-generation instruments in an onboard laboratory.
- Reason for Suspension:
- The sanctions brought against Russia and the wider context of the Ukraine conflict made a 2022 launch “very unlikely.”
- Russia’s Response:
- Russia responded to ESA’s decision by saying it would go to Mars independently.
- Issue: Dependence on Russia
- The mission uses a number of Russian-made components — including the rockets.
- Many components of the mission’s rover are also Russian-made.
- That includes radioisotope heaters that are used to keep the rover warm at night on the surface of Mars.
Source: IE
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