NASA In 2018 ExoMars RoverThe European Space Agency's (ESA) ExoMars program (Exobiology on Mars) is a series of missions designed to understand if life ever existed on Mars. Just as other countries often participate in NASA Mars missions, NASA contributes scientific, engineering, and technical expertise to other world efforts to explore the Red Planet. The second mission in the ExoMars program is the 2018 ExoMars Rover and landing platform, a partnership between ESA and Russia's Federal Space Agency, Roscosmos. It is scheduled for launch in the spring of 2018 and land on Mars nine months later.
NASA's participation in the 2018 ExoMars Rover mission includes providing critical elements to the premier astrobiology instrument on the rover, the Mars Organic Molecule Analyzer (MOMA). By studying organic molecules, the chemical building blocks of life, MOMA is designed to help answer questions about whether life ever existed on Mars, along with its potential origin, evolution, and distribution on the Red Planet.
NASA is providing a mass spectrometer and key electronic components for MOMA. A mass spectrometer is an instrument that identifies the amount and type of chemicals present in a sample. The NASA-provided MOMA mass spectrometer is designed to analyze the types and amounts of chemicals that make up organic and inorganic compounds found in rock and soil samples on Mars.
Updated: January 2016
http://mars.nasa.gov/programmissions/missions/future/exomarsrover2018/
This launch will slip to 2020. Everybody I talk to about it says that it's going to slip, they just have not made the formal announcement yet.
This launch will slip to 2020. Everybody I talk to about it says that it's going to slip, they just have not made the formal announcement yet.
I do wish it well, even if it has to improvise with 2020. It'll be Russia's big chance to prove itself, ESA's to directly sample Mars, and the best astrobiology attempt since Viking.
Apparently the next 3 Mars years will be quite exciting: ExoMars, the 2020 Rover, the 2022 Orbiter (NeMo I think), and Red Dragon It'll be like 2003 again!
Apparently the next 3 Mars years will be quite exciting: ExoMars, the 2020 Rover, the 2022 Orbiter (NeMo I think), and Red Dragon It'll be like 2003 again!
Don't forget Insight, Hope, the chinese rover, ....
Apparently the next 3 Mars years will be quite exciting: ExoMars, the 2020 Rover, the 2022 Orbiter (NeMo I think), and Red Dragon It'll be like 2003 again!
ExoMars will slip to 2020. Red Dragon will slip to 2020 or later. The 2022 orbiter will probably slip as well due to budgeting issues. InSight will launch in 2018, and China will try a mission in 2020.
Apparently the next 3 Mars years will be quite exciting: ExoMars, the 2020 Rover, the 2022 Orbiter (NeMo I think), and Red Dragon It'll be like 2003 again!
ExoMars will slip to 2020. Red Dragon will slip to 2020 or later. The 2022 orbiter will probably slip as well due to budgeting issues. InSight will launch in 2018, and China will try a mission in 2020.
Should we place bets on what sticks to schedule?
Apparently the next 3 Mars years will be quite exciting: ExoMars, the 2020 Rover, the 2022 Orbiter (NeMo I think), and Red Dragon It'll be like 2003 again!
ExoMars will slip to 2020. Red Dragon will slip to 2020 or later. The 2022 orbiter will probably slip as well due to budgeting issues. InSight will launch in 2018, and China will try a mission in 2020.
I don't know why they even moved the date for Red Dragon forward they might as well left it where it was. Other than trying to obtain headlines.
Is it just money delaying the ExoMars rover or other factors as well?
Apparently the next 3 Mars years will be quite exciting: ExoMars, the 2020 Rover, the 2022 Orbiter (NeMo I think), and Red Dragon It'll be like 2003 again!
ExoMars will slip to 2020. Red Dragon will slip to 2020 or later. The 2022 orbiter will probably slip as well due to budgeting issues. InSight will launch in 2018, and China will try a mission in 2020.
I don't know why they even moved the date for Red Dragon forward they might as well left it where it was. Other than trying to obtain headlines.
Is it just money delaying the ExoMars rover or other factors as well?
From snippets in press accounts quoting ESA officials, it sounds as if ESA hasn't quite gathered all the funding needed (the total bill is much more than the original program was sold at and this is an optional program under the ESA system, so it's hat in hand) and development is going more slowly than desired because of interface friction between the ESA and Russian design teams.
Apparently the next 3 Mars years will be quite exciting: ExoMars, the 2020 Rover, the 2022 Orbiter (NeMo I think), and Red Dragon It'll be like 2003 again!
ExoMars will slip to 2020. Red Dragon will slip to 2020 or later. The 2022 orbiter will probably slip as well due to budgeting issues. InSight will launch in 2018, and China will try a mission in 2020.
I don't know why they even moved the date for Red Dragon forward they might as well left it where it was. Other than trying to obtain headlines.
Is it just money delaying the ExoMars rover or other factors as well?
From snippets in press accounts quoting ESA officials, it sounds as if ESA hasn't quite gathered all the funding needed (the total bill is much more than the original program was sold at and this is an optional program under the ESA system, so it's hat in hand) and development is going more slowly than desired because of interface friction between the ESA and Russian design teams.
How confident should we be that it will launch in 2020?
How confident should we be that it will launch in 2020?
I have zero information on that. All I know is that everybody I talk to (primarily Americans who have direct insight into the program, but not people who actually work on it) says they are sure of the 2018 slip.
There could also be some benefit to slipping to 2020 because it gives them more time to learn from the current mission and incorporate any necessary changes into the next mission. NASA/JPL/LM have a much bigger experience base and so they can pull off missions every launch window. ESA and the Russians don't have that experience base and so they could possibly use a bit more time.
I would be that it will launch by 2020. 2018 is probably too early both technically and financially. But a successful landing by ExoMars would probably spark a lot of good will in the european public so the politicians sit down and write those tiny checks that these missions desperately need.
ExoMars will slip to 2020. Red Dragon will slip to 2020 or later. The 2022 orbiter will probably slip as well due to budgeting issues. InSight will launch in 2018, and China will try a mission in 2020.
If RD slips, it will be due to payload issues rather than structural issues - exactly like InSight. We're always up against launch windows, and payloads can be difficult...
Looks like the delay is finally official;
Peter B. de Selding @pbdes 2m2 minutes ago
ESA/Roscosmos: ExoMars 2018 is scrapped. Too little time to prepare; we'll launch the rover in July 2020, the next window.
Looks like the delay is finally official;
Peter B. de Selding @pbdes 2m2 minutes ago
ESA/Roscosmos: ExoMars 2018 is scrapped. Too little time to prepare; we'll launch the rover in July 2020, the next window.
See? I have a crystal ball...
Is the 2020 window more favourable for landing sites then? Otherwise there's always been a choice.
Yes,
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-34584214However, if the hardware cannot be prepared in time - and there is some doubt that it can be - then the departure will occur in 2020.
If that is the case then scientists and engineers will also consider two other locations - Mawrth Vallis and Aram Dorsum.
The reason is because the angle of the landing ellipse is different in 2020 than in 2018.
http://exploration.esa.int/mars/56622-exomars-2018-landing-site-search-to-narrow/The conclusion of the Landing Site Selection Working Group was that the engineering risks were too large for Aram Dorsum or Mwarth Vallis in 2018 and hence why Oxia Planum came out the clear winner and no others were selected as a backup, which is the usual practice. The 2020 landing ellipses are more benign for the other sites meaning they could be back in contention.
Interview with Mr de Groot.
Two years’ delay means additional costs. What are they?
A: We are trying to minimize them by building the spacecraft as quickly as possible so as not to stretch all the [program development elements] over two years and two months, which would mean maximum extra costs. The subcontractors are pretty much on schedule, so what we plan to do – pending a new, integrated and finalized schedule – is try to build all the models we have to build. Then during the storage period we would no longer have very big teams working for the mission. That will decrease the cost as much as possible.
Do you have a cost estimate?
We are negotiating with the prime contractors on what will be a reasonable price. We were still negotiating the full development contracts for the 2018 mission. We were very close to finalizing this and now this adds a little bit of complexity. That’s why we are trying not to mention any numbers here, because it will not help our negotiations with Airbus Defence and Space, which is responsible for the rover, and with Thales Alenia Space Italia, which is overall program prime contractor.
Does this have anything to do with Roscosmos budget cuts?
No, it has nothing to do with that. They are having severe budget cuts compared to last year, but this is not impacting ExoMars. ExoMars is still a high priority for them.
http://spacenews.com/q-a-european-russian-space-agencies-delay-2nd-exomars-mission-to-2020/
