Airbus wins contract to build lander for Europe’s long delayed ExoMars Franklin rover
Geology map for Franklin landing site. Click for
original image. Click here for original article.
The European Space Agency (ESA) late yesterday announced that it has awarded Airbus a $194 million contract to build the lander that will place Europe’s long delayed ExoMars Franklin rover on the Martian surface, replacing the Russian lander that became unavailable when the ESA/Russian partnership ended after Russia invaded the Ukraine in 2022.
Airbus announced late March 28 (Eastern time) that it was selected by ESA and Thales Alenia Space, the prime contractor for the mission, to build the landing platform for that rover mission, scheduled to launch in 2028.
The landing platform is the part of the ExoMars spacecraft that handles the final phases of its descent to the Martian surface in 2030, including performing the final landing burn. After landing, the platform will deploy ramps to allow the ExoMars rover, named Rosalind Franklin, to roll onto the Martian surface.
This project was first begun in the early 2010s, with a launch date targeting 2018. Initially a partnership between ESA and NASA, Obama canceled all American participation in 2012. Russia picked up the slack, but then the mission had numerous technical problems that caused it to miss first that 2018 launch window, and then 2020 window as well. Then, just months before launch in 2022, Russia invaded the Ukraine, resulting in Europe ending all its partnership deals with Russia.
The mission is now working to launch in the 2028 window. We shall see if it can meet that date.
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Geology map for Franklin landing site. Click for
original image. Click here for original article.
The European Space Agency (ESA) late yesterday announced that it has awarded Airbus a $194 million contract to build the lander that will place Europe’s long delayed ExoMars Franklin rover on the Martian surface, replacing the Russian lander that became unavailable when the ESA/Russian partnership ended after Russia invaded the Ukraine in 2022.
Airbus announced late March 28 (Eastern time) that it was selected by ESA and Thales Alenia Space, the prime contractor for the mission, to build the landing platform for that rover mission, scheduled to launch in 2028.
The landing platform is the part of the ExoMars spacecraft that handles the final phases of its descent to the Martian surface in 2030, including performing the final landing burn. After landing, the platform will deploy ramps to allow the ExoMars rover, named Rosalind Franklin, to roll onto the Martian surface.
This project was first begun in the early 2010s, with a launch date targeting 2018. Initially a partnership between ESA and NASA, Obama canceled all American participation in 2012. Russia picked up the slack, but then the mission had numerous technical problems that caused it to miss first that 2018 launch window, and then 2020 window as well. Then, just months before launch in 2022, Russia invaded the Ukraine, resulting in Europe ending all its partnership deals with Russia.
The mission is now working to launch in the 2028 window. We shall see if it can meet that date.
Readers!
My annual February birthday fund-raising drive for Behind the Black is now over. Thank you to everyone who donated or subscribed. While not a record-setter, the donations were more than sufficient and slightly above average.
As I have said many times before, I can’t express what it means to me to get such support, especially as no one is required to pay anything to read my work. Thank you all again!
For those readers who like my work here at Behind the Black and haven't contributed so far, please consider donating or subscribing. My analysis of space, politics, and culture, taken from the perspective of an historian, is almost always on the money and ahead of the game. For example, in 2020 I correctly predicted that the COVID panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Every one of those 2020 conclusions has turned out right.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
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Eric Berger also has an article up today about this development. There’s nothing new here; it is just a recap of ExoMars’ history — useful if you’re not familiar with its long and convoluted history.
Eric opines: “The Trump administration is poised to push NASA’s exploration program to focus on Mars, and that will likely entail sending SpaceX Starships to the red planet with increasing frequency. SpaceX is aiming for the 2026 launch window for Mars and certainly will be targeting one or more Starships for late 2028. Will NASA, citing redundancy with Starship missions, pull the plug on ExoMars again? With ExoMars, the only certainty is to expect the unexpected.”
https://arstechnica.com/space/2025/03/four-different-rockets-three-landers-and-two-decades-will-exomars-ever-launch/
Berger is increasingly hostile to the administration and Elon’s involvement with it (check out his BlueSky feed, where he clearly feels more uninhibited) but maybe it’s not *totally* paranoid to wonder about NASA’s funding commitment to ExoMars. After all, it was the Obama Administration pulling out of it abruptly in 2012 that left ESA holding the bag the first time around — we’ve been to this rodeo before. But Jared Isaacman gets a vote, and given some of his past comments I would be very surprised if he would be happy seeing this modest commitment deep-sixed.
I think it’s fair to say all NASA projects are now on the bubble at least until Isaacman is sworn in.
But I think that while the future of ExoMars is most likely to be unconnected budgetarily to whatever Elon plans to do anent Mars, its overall fate will still be influenced by whatever he manages to do between now and 2026. Elon seems pretty eager to put the pedal to the metal on his Mars efforts, but the notion of sending at least one – and possibly several – cargo-only Starships, crewed by Optimus robots, to Mars in 2026 is still, in my view, a project with a probability above 50% of proving doable. To maximize that probability, though, means keeping NASA involvement as minimal as possible – most preferably zero – as NASA involvement always introduces delays. If there is no NASA money/involvement in SpaceX’s initial Mars efforts then there can be no adverse budgetary impact on any NASA decision anent ExoMars.
That said, it remains an open question as to how much actual incremental science value there is to be had from ExoMars as opposed to a project of some other kind costing the same amount of NASA cash. Given the new target departure date for ExoMars, the answer to this question certainly could prove to be heavily influenced by whether or not Elon actually gets off a 2026 Mars maiden effort. If he does, that would presage a far larger effort in the 2028-9 window that might even include human crew. Even just a larger Optimus-crewed effort then – or an initial one if 2026 proves a miss – would raise serious questions about ExoMars’s cost-effectiveness, especially if Curiosity and Perseverance are both still chugging along.
Hello Dic,
I think the argument for the ExoMars participation is largely political. We (Obama) stiffed them hard in 2012, as I said; and after the Ukraine War forced them to hit the ejector seat on Roscosmos, they were in a tough spot, and it is probably fairly cheap diplomacy to help ’em.
Not that ExoMars won’t produce worthwhile science (it should); but I don’t think that was the sole motivation for NASA. Also, it will end up going to a location that is sure to retain Cat IVb classification (i.e., no Starships).
VSECOTSPE had a thoughtful idea on this a few months back. If Trump really wants a “sanctioned” SpaceX venture to Mars before he leaves office, have NASA issue a Space Act RFP for a cargo demonstration to the Martian surface, to launch by the 2028 launch window, with some appropriate minimum payload requirement (50 tons or whatever) with mission architecture and design left entirely to the bidder, for a nominal award and use of the DSN; let their boffins cook up whatever science packages they want to stick on it, with an understanding of the risk involved. It wouldn’t put lives at risk, and it would allow a NASA involvement that is minimally intrusive, while still giving Trump something to crow about.