Russia’s Roscosmos Space Corporation and European Space Agency (ESA) have decided to postpone the launch of the second ExoMars mission to study the Red Planet to 2022. The joint Roscosmos-ESA project team evaluated all the activities needed for an authorization to launch, in order to analyze the risks and schedule. With due consideration of the recommendations provided by European and Russian Inspectors General, ExoMars experts have concluded that tests necessary to make all components of the spacecraft fit for the Mars adventure need more time to complete, website of Roscosmos reports.
The primary goal of the mission is to determine if there has ever been life on Mars, and to better understand the history of water on the planet. The ExoMars rover, named Rosalind Franklin, includes a drill to access the sub-surface of Mars as well as a miniature life-search laboratory kept within an ultra-clean zone.
The new schedule foresees a launch between August and September 2022. Celestial mechanics define that only relatively short launch windows (10 days each) every two years exist in which Mars can be reached from Earth. ExoMars will be the first mission to search for signs of life at depths up to two meters below the martian surface, where biological signatures of life may be uniquely well preserved.