Photo: ESA/ATG medialab
We’re more than three weeks now into the worst conflict between civilized nations the world has seen since the Second World War, and things still don’t look like they’re easing up. Even when they will, the incredible harm done to the world, in pretty much all aspects of life, will remain.
Facing the most severe sanctions any nations has ever been subjected to by the international community, Russia escalated the war on the ground over in Ukraine to areas that until recently seemed impervious to any political or miltary turmoil, including space exploration.
Having already threatened to quit the International Space Station and let it fall to Earth (an inaccurate and useless threat), and stopped other nations from using its Soyuz rockets, Russia’s unwillingness to back down has pretty much killed all hopes for Europe’s first mission to Mars in the foreseeable future.
Back in early March, rumors of the ExoMars mission not happening in 2022 surfaced. ExoMars was meant to carry the continent’s first rover, the Rosalind Franklin, to the Red Planet as early as this year. Now, after European Space Agency’s (ESA) higher ups met in Paris, the project is officially and effectively suspended, for an unknown period of time.
According to ESA, there is now no possibility of “carrying out the ongoing cooperation with Roscosmos” for the rest of the year, and steps will be taken to “suspend the cooperation activities accordingly.”
That doesn’t mean Europe is giving up on ExoMars, for which the Russians contributed the Proton rocket, the surface platform, and a host of instruments and systems needed for the job ahead, which was finding signs of life.
We’re told ESA will now “carry out a fast-track industrial study to better define the available options for a way forward to implement the ExoMars rover mission,” but no exact timeframe for that is given.
Having already threatened to quit the International Space Station and let it fall to Earth (an inaccurate and useless threat), and stopped other nations from using its Soyuz rockets, Russia’s unwillingness to back down has pretty much killed all hopes for Europe’s first mission to Mars in the foreseeable future.
Back in early March, rumors of the ExoMars mission not happening in 2022 surfaced. ExoMars was meant to carry the continent’s first rover, the Rosalind Franklin, to the Red Planet as early as this year. Now, after European Space Agency’s (ESA) higher ups met in Paris, the project is officially and effectively suspended, for an unknown period of time.
According to ESA, there is now no possibility of “carrying out the ongoing cooperation with Roscosmos” for the rest of the year, and steps will be taken to “suspend the cooperation activities accordingly.”
That doesn’t mean Europe is giving up on ExoMars, for which the Russians contributed the Proton rocket, the surface platform, and a host of instruments and systems needed for the job ahead, which was finding signs of life.
We’re told ESA will now “carry out a fast-track industrial study to better define the available options for a way forward to implement the ExoMars rover mission,” but no exact timeframe for that is given.
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