Airbus UK, a wholly-owned subsidairy of US aerospace giant, has won the £150 million contract to complete a landing system for the long-delayed ExoMars rover.
The European rover, dubbed Rosalind Franklin after the DNA scientist, was originally slated for launch in 2022. The spacecraft was scheduled to be shipped to Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan in April of that year, but Russia's invasion of Ukraine put an end to that plan as cooperation between the European Space Agency (ESA) and Roscosmos was suspended.
In addition to the launch vehicle, Roscosmos was also supplying a lander to transport the rover to the Martian surface.
Things looked bleak for the rover, the launch of which had already been delayed from 2018 and 2020, until ESA took a deep breath and confirmed it would proceed. NASA is to provide the launch services, rockets to assist with the landing, and some heater units. Thales Alenia Space (TAS) is responsible for the Mars Entry, Descent, and Landing Module (EDLM) and maintaining the existing vehicles.
Launch from Kennedy Space Center is planned to go ahead between October and December 2028, ahead of an arrival on Mars in 2030.
The Airbus team based in Stevenage, UK, under contract from TAS, will be responsible for systems including the landing structure, the large propulsion system that provides the final braking thrust, and the landing gear to ensure the lander is stable on touchdown. The lander will feature two ramps that will be deployed on opposite sides, enabling the rover to be driven onto the Martian surface using the least risky route.
According to ESA, other elements of the lander, such as the parachute system, the computer, and the radar doppler altimeter, are items that were originally built for the Russian Descent Module.
Although the ExoMars rover may not be considered a spring chicken once it finally reaches the surface of Mars, the prospect of drilling two meters into the planet in search of samples to be analyzed by instruments on the rover has scientists giddy with excitement.
Dame Dr Maggie Aderin-Pocock DBE said: "The British-built Rosalind Franklin rover will give us vital insight into the history of Mars. This type of information from other planets can give us a better understanding of our own place in space and our planetary evolution.
"With its unique design that enables it to acquire samples at a depth of up to two meters, we may get answers to some of the fundamental questions we ask about Mars. Drilling to this depth allows us to look for life away from the hostile Martian surface where radiation is likely to kill life as we know it.
"Samples gathered by the Rosalind Franklin rover may help us answer the age-old question, 'Are we alone in the Universe?'"
The new contract was awarded by ESA and funded by the government through the UK Space Agency.
The rover's journey has taken far longer than planned due to technical and political delays. The 2028 launch date is ambitious, considering the work required on the lander alone. The dependence on NASA for launch services might also have seemed a great idea in 2023, but perhaps not so much in 2025, considering how the landscape has changed and the well-documented antipathy towards Europe in the current US administration. ®