NASA Steps In to Support ESA’s Rosalind Franklin Rover Ahead of 2028 Mars Launch

ESA officials said this week that NASA will assist Europe's Rosalind Franklin rover in reaching Mars. The organisation will provide the mission with the Mars Organic Molecule Analyser instrument, thermal heaters, landing thrusters, and a U.S. launch vehicle. The rover, which is scheduled to launch in 2028 as part of the long-running, ESA-led ExoMars program, will search for extraterrestrial life by drilling up to two meters into the Martian surface.

NASA's renewed role

According to ESA Director-General Josef Aschbacher, NASA will fulfil its commitments to the Rosalind Franklin mission. Under a 2024 agreement, NASA's Launch Services Program will secure a U.S. launch vehicle for the rover, and the agency will supply radioisotope heater units and retrorockets for a safe descent and landing. NASA has also delivered the Mars Organic Molecule Analyser (MOMA) mass spectrometer – built with German and French partners – to analyse the rover's samples.

Mission background and goals

ExoMars is the ESA project in astrobiology. The first stage of the mission was the orbiter, Trace Gas, launched in 2016, and the second part of the mission is the rover, Rosalind Franklin, scheduled to launch in 2028. The rover can drill two meters into the Martian subsurface, and it has the MOMA laboratory that could test the specimens to determine whether there were signs of ancient life.

The mission was originally scheduled to occur in 2022, but it was delayed after ESA ended its cooperation with Roscosmos. NASA, along with other European space agencies, is collaborating with the development of the landing hardware and instruments, with ESA in charge of the mission.