Europe and Russia's ExoMars Launch Moved To 2020

Europe and Russia's collaborative space effort to launch a Mars Rover in two years' time has been postponed moved the timetable to two more years in 2020. ExoMars, as the project is called, has seen a number of problems caused by technical delays and multiple setbacks in mission preparations.

The European Space Agency (ESA) and its Russian counterpart decided to call off the 2018 launch of the rover following a 'Tiger Team' report submitted to the Joint ExoMars Steering Board (JESB). The report assessed the readiness of the Mars Mission, however, JESB decided that launching the European-made lander atop a Proton rocket from the Baikonour Cosmodrome could no longer be carried out, hence, the need for rescheduling.

The now ExoMars 2020 includes a rover designed to drill in search for life and forms the second part of the two-pronged ExoMars program. The first part of the mission called the 'Trace Gas Orbiter, was a satellite to study the planet's atmosphere, was successfully launched this march in an attempt to detect signs of methane gas, Science Magazine reported.

So, what's keeping the second part of the Euro-Russian project from taking off?

According to a report by GizMag, one of the major setbacks of the mission is the problem related to its chemical rocket technology. Scientists would have to wait until the red planet and Earth are in proper alignment which occurs only between every 18 months or 24 months. But of course, other factors that can affect the launch such as the desired orbital technology. If the project misses the schedule window even by few weeks only, the result would be a long delay in years.

"It is not only the components of the spacecraft; it's several of the instruments. What we have been doing lately is seeing if we could shorten the assembly, integration and testing (AIT) phase to something that would be acceptable from a risk point of view, but still make the 2018 launch," remarked Rolf de Groot, head of ESA's Robotic Exploration Coordination Office as per BBC News report.

"Very recently, we have concluded that this is not possible without adding a large amount of additional risk to an already risky mission. So, we decided the only responsible thing to do was move to the 2020 launch date."