ExoMars 2022 Mission:
The European Space Agency’s ExoMars 2022 mission won’t launch in September, 2022 as planned after the agency suspended all cooperation with Russia’s space program Roscosmos.
- Earlier, the Russian space agency Roscosmos held that it will not cooperate with Germany on joint experiments in the Russian segment of the International Space Station (ISS).
ExoMars 2022 Mission:
It is a two-stage mission:
First Part:
- Its first mission launched atop a Proton-M rocket in 2016 and consisted of the European Trace Gas Orbiter and test lander called Schiaparelli.
- The orbiter was successful while the test lander failed during its descent to Mars.
Second Part:
- It comprises a rover and surface platform:
- This second part of the mission was originally planned for July 2020. But it was postponed until this September due to technical issues.
ESA and National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) were the original ExoMars collaborators, but NASA dropped out in 2012 due to budgeting problems.
- Russia took NASA’s place in the project in 2013.
- The primary aim of the mission is to check if there has ever been life on Mars and also understand the history of water on the planet.
- The European rover will drill to the sub-surface of Mars to collect samples from about 2 m of depth.
- The main goal is to land ESA’s rover at a site which has high-potential for finding well-preserved organic material, particularly from the history of the planet.
