The European Space Agency’s Rosalind Franklin rover was scheduled to launch in September 2022 on a Russian Proton rocket and descend on a Roscosmos-built landing platform in 2023.
The European Space Agency sought about half of the 700,000,000 EUR needed to replace components Russia was originally to provide for ExoMars, including the landing platform that would deliver the Rosalind Franklin rover to Mars.
ESA studied whether the Rosalind Franklin rover would still be scientifically useful if ExoMars launches in 2028 and arrives at Mars in 2030.
ExoMars was previously scheduled to launch in September on a Russian Proton rocket and to use a Russian landing platform to deliver the ESA-built Rosalind Franklin rover to Mars.
A 2028 launch trajectory option would deliver the Rosalind Franklin rover to Mars relatively quickly but would have the rover arrive about one month before the dust storm season at the preferred landing site.
Roscosmos provided the landing platform for the ESA-built Rosalind Franklin rover.
ESA was collaborating with Roscosmos on the ExoMars mission, which was scheduled for launch in September 2022 on a Proton rocket and would deliver the Rosalind Franklin rover to Mars.
ExoMars 2022 involves the European-built Rosalind Franklin rover and a Roscosmos-made lander.
The Rosalind Franklin rover and the Kazachok surface platform, provided by Roscosmos, will land in the Oxia Planum region of Mars in June 2023.
The ExoMars Rosalind Franklin mission launch was delayed from 2020 to 2022 because of technical issues and impacts of the coronavirus pandemic.
ESA’s Rosalind Franklin ExoMars rover has been delayed to the next launch opportunity in 2022.
The ExoMars Rosalind Franklin rover mission will not launch in 2020 due to lack of time to test and qualify problematic parachutes and electronics vital to the spacecraft.
The Rosalind Franklin rover was initially scheduled to launch in 2018 but was delayed to 2020 due to delays in European and Russian industrial activities.
Successful high altitude drop tests of both the 15-meter supersonic and 35-meter subsonic parachutes are required to authorize launch of the 300-kilogram Rosalind Franklin rover during the 2020-07-25 to 2020-08-13 Mars launch window.
A minor de-bonding occurred on part of the Rosalind Franklin rover solar array following system environmental tests, and a mechanical fix was planned to be implemented at Thales Alenia Space in Torino.
ExoMars 2020 features a Russian-built landing platform called Kazachok that will deliver the European rover Rosalind Franklin to the Martian surface.