We have long followed this rover proposal — from drawing board, to now… the build. [This is what Mars missions ought to look like — that is, automated — with no need for boots on the Martian surface, with humans inside them.]
It will likely get its spacecraft and launch vehicle from NASA — even though the payload is. . . an ESA project build.
Here’s the latest on this very worthwhile robotic effort, to Mars:
…NASA has given approval for the agency’s Rosalind Franklin Support and Augmentation (ROSA) project to begin implementation, underscoring the agency’s continued partnership with ESA’s (European Space Agency) Rosalind Franklin mission. The mission is led by ESA and that agency is responsible for providing the spacecraft, including the carrier module, the landing platform, as well as the rover and surface operations.
Scheduled to launch in 2028, Rosalind Franklin will be the first Mars rover to search for signs of past or present life under the Red Planet’s surface. The ROSA project will provide designated hardware and services to ESA in support of the Rosalind Franklin mission, including the launch service, braking engines for the rover’s lander platform, and radioisotope heater units for the rover’s internal systems.
The project also includes specialized electronics and a state-of-the-art mass spectrometer for the Mars organic molecule analyzer science instrument, which will search for the building blocks of life in samples collected at the rover’s landing site, Mars’ Oxia Planum….
Now you know. Onward to tomorrow — through a warmly drenching rain, tonight — but much colder by tomorrow night, at the Lyric.
नमस्ते
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