WASHINGTON — Airbus Defence and Space will build the landing platform for the European Space Agency’s ExoMars rover, replacing a critical component originally to be provided by Russia.
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.
Airbus did not disclose the value of the contract. ESA awarded a contract worth 522 million euros ($565 million) to Thales Alenia Space in April 2024 to restart work on the mission, which was paused in March 2022 weeks after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Russia was to provide the landing platform as well as launch the mission on a Proton rocket.
“Getting the Rosalind Franklin rover onto the surface of Mars is a huge international challenge and the culmination of more than 20 years’ work,” Kata Escott, managing director of Airbus Defence and Space U.K., in a statement about the award. Airbus will build the landing platform at its facility in Stevenage, England, where it also assembled the Rosalind Franklin rover.
“We are proud to have built the rover in our state-of-the-art Stevenage clean room and delighted now to develop the project to ensure its safe delivery to Mars,” she said.
ExoMars will also include contributions from NASA. In an agreement finalized in May 2024, NASA will provide throttlable braking engines for the landing platform as well as radioisotope heating units (RHUs), which contain small amounts of plutonium-238 whose decay provides heat to keep the rover warm.
Because of the RHUs, ExoMars will need to launch from the United States, with NASA procuring a launch vehicle at a later date.
Once on Mars, Rosalind Franklin’s instruments will look for evidence of past and present Martian life. The rover includes a drill designed to probe as deep as two meters into the surface.
“This is humanity defining science, and the best opportunity to find if past life once existed on Mars,” Paul Bate, chief executive of the U.K. Space Agency, in a statement about the Airbus contract.