NASA of the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Rosalind Franklin rover, which is being sent to Mars. The current plan is to launch via a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket from Kennedy Space Center. The timing is still being worked out, but the space agency says this won’t happen until at least 2028.
This is a partnership between NASA and the ESA, with the European agency providing the rover, the spacecraft and the lander. The US will provide braking engines for the lander, heater units for the rover’s internal systems and, of course, assistance with the actual launch.
The rover will be outfitted with scientific instruments to look for signs of ancient life on the red planet. These include a state-of-the-art mass spectrometer and an organic molecule analyzer, which will come in handy as the vehicle collects samples at the Oxia Planum landing site.
This is a mission that has suffered years of delays for all kinds of wild reasons. It was actually first conceived . The rover mission was originally scheduled for 2009, after NASA came on board. Budget constraints forced NASA to drop out in 2012, so Russia signed on as the ESA’s launch partner.
During this period, the mission which . The ESA in 2022 after the country invaded Ukraine. This left the mission in doubt until 2024, when NASA .
However, the setbacks didn’t even end there. The Trump administration has repeatedly tried to end NASA’s involvement with the project, and many others, . The current proposal was made while the around the Moon, . Here’s hoping the launch actually happens in 2028.
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