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Finally, and after two weeks in ‘limbo’, the European Space Agency (ESA) has decided to suspend the Russian-European mission Exo-Mars due to the conflict in Ukraine. The goal of this project was to take the rover to Mars. Rosalind Franklinthe first devised by Europe in conjunction with the Russian space agency, Roscosmoswho was in charge of the shuttle and the landing structure.
“As an intergovernmental organization with a mandate to develop and implement space programs in full respect of European values, we deeply deplore the human victims and the tragic consequences of the aggression against Ukraine,” the agency said in a statement. While acknowledging the impact on scientific space exploration, ESA is fully aligned
with the sanctions imposed on Russia by its Member States.
The withdrawal from Russia
Roscosmos’ decision to withdraw its personnel from the European spaceport in French Guiana at the end of last February led to the suspension of all missions scheduled for launch with Russian Soyuz rockets or related to its personnel, 87 people who already have left the premises. “Roscosmos stops cooperation with European partners for the organization of space launches from the Kourou cosmodrome and withdraws its technical personnel, including the launch team, from French Guiana,” said Roscosmos on February 26, the head of the russian Space Agency, Dimitri Rogozinin response to the sanctions imposed by the European Union.
The ESA warned a day later in a statement about the uncertain future of ExoMars, whose launch was scheduled for September 2022 after multiple delays. “With regard to the continuation of the ExoMars program, the sanctions and the broader context make a launch in 2022 is highly unlikely. The ESA Director General will analyze all options and prepare a formal decision on the way forward by ESA Member States,” they explained at the time.
The governing council of the space agency has finally met in Paris this Wednesday and Thursday, voting “unanimously” to suspend activities in cooperation with Russia in the ExoMars mission. However, this does not mean the end of the projectsince the Director General of ESA has been commissioned to carry out an “accelerated industrial study to better define the available options to implement the ExoMars rover mission”, in addition to seeking alternatives for the other affected missions: the program Galileo (the European ‘GPS’), Euclid (a probe that will try to improve our understanding of energy and dark matter by accurately measuring the acceleration of the universe, and scheduled to launch in 2023) and EarthCare (a satellite built jointly between Europe and Japan with the aim of analyzing the relationship between clouds, aerosols and radiation, also scheduled to take off next year). All these missions depended on Russian rockets Soyuzalthough some were also compatible with the French Ariane.
Other missions affected
The ESA is not the only victim. Rogozin confirmed that they were suspending their collaboration with NASA on the mission Venus, a probe to visit the planet Venus, in addition to threatening the future of the International Space Station (ISS), in which Russia is a qualified partner with its own segment and permanent crew members. “If they block cooperation with us, who will save the ISS from an uncontrolled orbit and falling into the United States or… Europe?” she claimed through his Twitter account.
In this regard, the ESA has clarified in its statement that the ISS program “continues to operate nominally.” “The main objective is to continue the safe operations of the ISS, including maintaining the safety of the crew,” he said.
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