ESA Aborts Mars Rover Mission As Russia-Ukraine Conflict Persists

The European Space Agency (ESA) has decided to cancel sending its first robotic rover to Mars. (photo: Doc. ESA)

JAKARTA - Due to the protracted conflict between Russia and Ukraine, the European Space Agency (ESA) has decided to cancel the delivery of its first robotic rover to Mars with the Russian Space Agency (Roscosmos).

The mission, dubbed ExoMars, if implemented, will investigate whether the Red Planet has had life in its past. Unfortunately, in its recent confirmation, ESA has suspended the ExoMars rover mission indefinitely with Roscosmos.

Earlier, the ESA said the mission was highly unlikely because of Russia's war against Ukraine. The decision to suspend cooperation with Roscosmos was taken by the governing council of the ESA, at a meeting this week in Paris.

"We deeply regret the human toll and the tragic consequences of this aggression against Ukraine," the ESA said.

"While acknowledging the impact on scientific exploration of space, the ESA is fully aligned with the sanctions imposed on Russia by its member states."

Because of their respective orbits around the Sun, Mars can only be reached from Earth once every two years. The next launch window is 2024.

According to CBC, Friday, March 18, the ExoMars mission has been postponed from 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the need for more tests on spacecraft.

The ExoMars robot will later be launched on a Russian Proton-M rocket from the Baikonur launch site in Kazakhstan, and is scheduled to land on the Red Planet about nine months later than the scheduled launch in September.

Even so, ExoMars will not be alone on Mars. Earlier there was NASA's Perseverance rover which landed in February 2021, and China's first Mars rover, Zhurong, named after the Chinese god of fire.