ExoMars 202? troubled future.

[PB666]

This is not about ExoMars 2016, which is happily on its way to mars, this is about a mission that has been postponed since 2011 and now appears scheduled to launch in 2020 

I've seen a couple of news articles about this over the last couple of days, all of them ring with scepticism about the 2020 launch date.

http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-36251642

Quote

Esa is currently in dispute with its industrial partners on how much the mission should cost. This impasse has to be resolved first.

 . . . . .  . .  . .  . .  .  . . . . . . .

"From my point of view it's very strange if you say, 'OK, I do it later, and therefore I get more money'. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johann-Dietrich_W%C3%B6rner  Director general of ESA

The director general [It is not clear from the article whether its the RSA DG or ESA] said it would be difficult to take money from other areas of the agency's budget just to bail out ExoMars.

- http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-36251642 By Jonathan Amos BBC Science Correspondent, Prague, Europe’s ExoMars rover in 'last chance saloon'

 

Key here is that they do not mention the industrial partners by name or the agency association of the director general, and we can guess at the reasons which if we did would violate 2.2b.

Quote

"We will have a discussion within the main member states who are involved in the programme and then we'll see how we can manage and whether we can manage. I'm not saying that we can manage it." Woerner - http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-36251642 , Europe’s ExoMars rover in 'last chance saloon'

This is from wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ExoMars

Quote

Russian landing system

The second mission, scheduled for launch in July 2020, will have an 1800 kg Russian-built landing platform system derived from the 2016 Schiaparelli EDM lander, to place the ExoMars rover on the surface of Mars.^[5][63][2] This lander platform will be built 80% by the Russian company Lavochkin, and 20% by ESA.^[10] Lavochkin will produce most of the landing system's hardware, while ESA will handle elements such as the guidance, radar and navigation systems.^[6] Lavochkin's current landing strategy is to use two parachutes; one will open while the module is still moving at supersonic speed, and another will deploy once the probe has been slowed down to subsonic velocity. The heat shield will eventually fall away from the entry capsule to allow the ExoMars rover, riding its retro-rocket-equipped lander, to come for a soft landing on legs or struts. The surface platform lander will then deploy ramps for the rover to drive down.^[63]

Critics have stated that while Russian expertise may be sufficient to provide a launch vehicle, it does not currently extend to the critical requirement of a landing system for Mars.^[63][64][65]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ExoMars#Second_launch_.282020.29

 

Here are the references:

http://www.bbc.com/news/health-23010103

http://optics.org/news/3/2/23

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2012/mar/16/spacewatch-nasa-mars-exomars

And of course now the US is going to send a duplicate of curiosity rover to Mars for its own mission to find evidence for life so . . .  did NASA see this coming?

 

[KAL 9000]

Well, if it does launch on the new schedule, 2020 is going to be a very busy year for Mars.

[Sanic]

NASA just won't give up on Mars life, even though it's basically 100% for life to exist there because the soil is so saturated in perchlorate. The stuff attaches to and destroys most organic matter and can be explosive!

And yet NASA insists on boldly going where they've gone before...

 

Edited May 10, 2016 by Sanic

[PB666]

Why should they give up, from a curiosity point of view, I would be kind of interested to seen the biochemistry and molecular biology of martain life. Even if it means extrapolating backwards based on well preserved 3 billion year old rocks.

 

[Kryten]

31 minutes ago, Sanic said:

NASA just won't give up on Mars life, even though it's basically 100% for life to exist there because the soil is so saturated in perchlorate. The stuff attaches to and destroys most organic matter and can be explosive!

And yet NASA insists on boldly going where they've gone before...

This is not a NASA mission, and is focused on samples from relatively deep drilling.

[Sanic]

5 minutes ago, Kryten said:

This is not a NASA mission, and is focused on samples from relatively deep drilling.

I was talking about the last line...

I get a bit(?) rant-y about NASA's Mars missions 

Edited May 10, 2016 by Sanic

[insert_name]

I am absolutely sure esa will not make the 202 launch window seeing as that was almost 2000 years ago

[Streetwind]

Also related: http://spacenews.com/esa-chief-says-funding-for-delayed-exomars-rover-mission-remains-uncertain/

My TL;DR on Wörner's words is basically this: he's liquided off at the contractors, likely considers the delay their responsibility (although he avoids saying it outright), and would therefore like to give them the financial responsiblity of keeping the mission alive until 2020 (AKA cost increase is carried by contractors, not ESA).

He would like to, but he's not sure if he can pull it off.

[insert_name]

looks like they have given the rover a name

https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-47151778

[Ozymandias_the_Goat]

16 minutes ago, insert_name said:

looks like they have given the rover a name

This thread has certainly had a long...hiatus, but...

I’m very glad that Franklin gets an exobiology instrument named after her. Certainly a better name than the troglodytic “Rover McRoverFace” which somebody apparently actually did submit it the naming contest 

[DDE]

On 2/7/2019 at 4:40 PM, Ozymandias_the_Goat said:

Certainly a better name than the troglodytic “Rover McRoverFace” which somebody apparently actually did submit it the naming contest 

Well, as those quarters of the Web say,

[Video Redacted]

 

Edited February 10, 2019 by Gargamel
Profanity in the Video.

[tater]

Not sure which thread this belongs in. Russian launch, ESA spacecraft, so here, I guess:

 

[insert_name]

And they have confirmed that it will be postponed till 22, not that surprising considering how close to the deadline they were getting with the chute tests

https://www.esa.int/Newsroom/Press_Releases/ExoMars_to_take_off_for_the_Red_Planet_in_2022

[ThatGuyWithALongUsername]

Guess we can update the title now...

[DDE]

8 hours ago, ThatGuyWithALongUsername said:

Guess we can update the title now...

That title update is almost two millennia overdue...

Anyway, better safe than sorry.

[kerbiloid]

Spoiler

Are the Martians immune to the virus?