After a saga of broken promises, a European rover finally has a ride to Mars

Instead, the agency turned to Russia to launch the orbiter and rover on two Proton rockets and provide the descent system to bring the rover to Mars. In exchange, ESA agreed to add Russian scientific instruments to the orbiter and rover missions. This was a boon for Russian scientific institutions. Without an international partnership like ExoMars, they had no realistic prospect of sending their own research payloads to the Red Planet.

Russia successfully launched the European-built ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter spacecraft on a Proton rocket in 2016. The orbiter still operates around Mars today, sending back scientific data and serving as a communications relay for NASA’s Curiosity and Perseverance rovers. A small European technology demonstration probe riding the orbiter crash landed after reaching the Red Planet.

Additional delays pushed the launch of the ExoMars rover from 2018 to 2020. The rover, then named for the late British chemist and DNA research pioneer Rosalind Franklin, was almost ready to launch in 2020 when a series of parachute test failures and the COVID-19 pandemic led to another delay until late 2022.

Everything changed again when Russian forces invaded Ukraine in February 2022. ESA severed most ties with the Russian space agency, ending the partnership on ExoMars after all elements of the mission, including the Russian rocket and Mars descent stage, were already built and ready for final assembly. ESA also removed two Russian scientific instruments from the mission.

Once again, the US government stepped in to give the Rosalind Franklin rover a ride to Mars. NASA and ESA formalized the new agreement in 2024, with the US side pledging to provide a launch vehicle, braking motors needed for landing and small nuclear-powered heaters to keep the rover’s sensitive electronics warm during Martian nights. NASA long ago delivered a mass spectrometer for the European rover that will analyze Martian soil for markers of organic molecules.

ESA is providing the rover and carrier spacecraft to transport it to Mars. Europe is also responsible for the overall assembly of the landing platform and operation of the rover on the Martian surface. Airbus built the rover in the UK and is supplying the main structure of the lander, which will sit on Mars and deploy ramps so the rover can disembark and begin its mission. German company OHB made the carrier spacecraft, or cruise stage, to guide the rover from Earth to Mars. Thales Alenia Space in Italy is responsible for putting all the pieces together and preparing the mission for launch.