ExoMars Rover

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ExoMars Rover

The ExoMars Rover, red the drilling jig.
Type: Mars rover
Country: EuropeEurope Europe , RussiaRussiaRussia 
Organization: European space agencyESA ESA , RoscosmosRoscosmosRoscosmos 
Mission dates
Start date: August – October 2022Template: future / in 2 years
Launcher: Proton-M / Bris-M
End date: 2024
Landing place: Mars , Oxia planum
18 ° 16 ′ 30 ″  N , 24 ° 37 ′ 55 ″  W.
General spacecraft data
Takeoff mass: 310 kg (1140 kg including landing module)

The ExoMars Rover is a Template: future / in 2 yearsmission planned for 2022 by the European Space Agency ESA as part of the ExoMars project in cooperation with the Russian space agency Roskosmos to explore the surface of Mars. The launch was initially planned for 2018, but was postponed to 2020 in May 2016 due to "delays in industrial activities and the delivery of the scientific payload". In March 2020 there was a further postponement to 2022 due to problems with the parachutes and the space probe's software , among other things. The rover built by ESA is to be launched with a Russian Proton rocket and land on Mars after a nine-month flight. The rover will examine the Martian surface for signs of past or current biological activity and drill holes in order to then analyze the drill cores with various instruments. The ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter is designed to act as a relay station for the rover to communicate with Earth.

On February 7, 2019, the rover was named Rosalind Franklin in honor of Rosalind Franklin , a British biochemist (1920–1958) who made a significant contribution to the elucidation of the double helix structure of DNA .

mission

Bridget, a prototype of the ExoMars Rover during a test near the Paranal Observatory in the Atacama Desert in northern Chile

During take-off and the journey to Mars, the rover and its landing platform will be controlled by an ESA transport module (ExoMars Carrier Module). The landing module contributed by Roskosmos should separate itself with the rover from the transport module shortly before reaching the Martian atmosphere and enter the atmosphere. At the beginning of the descent, the unit is braked by a heat shield , and then the descent is further slowed down with parachutes. Finally, brake rockets are supposed to reduce the speed further and the landing module, protected by shock absorbers, touch down on the surface. The rover is then to leave the landing platform via two rails and begin the scientific mission.

The primary goal of the mission is to search for organic material, especially from the early history of Mars. The material is mainly to be obtained by drilling, as the surface itself is subject to very strong changes due to the atmosphere and solar radiation. With the drill, samples are to be obtained from different depths of up to two meters. An infrared spectrometer will investigate the mineralogy of the rock in the boreholes. The samples obtained are then to be analyzed mineralogically and chemically in a laboratory. A special interest lies in the identification of organic material.

The rover is expected to Template: future / in 2 yearstravel several kilometers on Mars by the end of the planned mission in 2022 .

The mission is to be monitored from the Rover Operations Control Center (ROCC) in Turin (Italy). Communication is to take place via the European Space Control Center in Darmstadt.

Landing platform

The Russian landing platform, known as Kazachok , will not only transport the ExoMars rover to the surface of Mars, but will also subsequently investigate Mars as a stationary lander. An operating time of one earth year is planned. The landing platform has four booms equipped with solar cells for energy supply. Your main task is the photographic documentation of the environment and the investigation of the climate and atmosphere. In addition, the radiation exposure on the surface of Mars, possible water ice below the surface, and the exchange of volatile substances between the atmosphere and the surface are examined. Two of the 17 scientific instruments on the landing platform are provided by European institutes, the rest by Russia. In addition, ESA states are supplying four sensor packages for two Russian instruments. The scientific equipment will have a mass of 45 kg, with a total mass of the landing platform of about 830 kg.

Landing zone

The 2020 Mission Landing Site Selection Working Group (LSSWG) is responsible for the selection of the landing zone. The areas must allow a safe landing and also have the highest possible probability of finding organic material. There are areas around former water points that also have a flat shoreline or coastline, where sediments are easy to examine. Initially, there were four regions to choose from: Oxia Planum, Mawrth Vallis, Aram Dorsum and Hypanis Vallis. During the 5th meeting of the LSSWG in November 2018, it was finally proposed to select Oxia Planum as the landing area. The final decision was expected in mid-2019, but no information on this was published by the end of August 2020.

Instruments of the rover

The ExoMars Rover will carry a total of nine measuring devices. Two of them, ISEM and Adron, are being developed by the Space Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences (IKI).

  • PanCam (The Panoramic Camera), a panoramic camera .
  • ISEM (Infrared Spectrometer for ExoMars), an infrared spectrometer to analyze the mineral composition of the soil and, together with PanCam, to select samples for closer examination by other instruments. (IKI)
  • CLUPI (Close-Up Imager), a camera for macro shots, which is attached to the front of the drilling device.
  • WISDOM (Water Ice and Subsurface Deposit Observation On Mars), a ground penetrating radar to research the stratigraphy below the rover.
  • Adron , an instrument to find water and hydrates in the Martian soil. Together with WISDOM, Adron is to find suitable locations for taking drill samples. (IKI)
  • Ma_MISS (Mars Multispectral Imager for Subsurface Studies), a multispectral analyzer that is located inside the drill.
  • MicrOmega , a spectrometer for mineralogical investigations.
  • RLS (Raman Spectrometer), a spectrometer to examine the mineral composition of the samples and to find pigments of organic origin.
  • MOMA (Mars Organic Molecule Analyzer), a device to find biomarkers .

See also

Web links

Commons : ExoMars Rover  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ExoMars on the ESA website, accessed March 12, 2020.
  2. ExoMars to take off for the Red Planet in 2022 . Roscosmos, March 12, 2020.
  3. N ° 6–2020: ExoMars to take off for the Red Planet in 2022 . ESA, March 12, 2020.
  4. Fernando Rull, Sylvestre Maurice, Ian Hutchinson, Andoni Moral, Carlos Perez, Carlos Diaz, Maria Colombo, Tomas Belenguer, Guillermo Lopez-Reyes, Antonio Sansano, Olivier Forni, Yann Parot, Nicolas Striebig, Simon Woodward, Chris Howe, Nicolau Tarcea , Pablo Rodriguez, Laura Seoane, Amaia Santiago, Jose A. Rodriguez-Prieto, Jesús Medina, Paloma Gallego, Rosario Canchal, Pilar Santamaría, Gonzalo Ramos, Jorge L. Vago: The Raman Laser Spectrometer for the ExoMars Rover Mission to Mars . In: Astrobiology . tape 17 . Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., July 1, 2017, p. 6–7 , doi : 10.1089 / ast.2016.1567 (English).
  5. ESA: ExoMars Mission (2018). Retrieved December 30, 2015 .
  6. ESA: ESA's Mars rover has a name - Rosalind Franklin. Retrieved February 9, 2019 .
  7. ESA: ESA Bulletin 155 (August 2013) PDF. Retrieved December 30, 2015 .
  8. ESA: ExoMars 2020 surface platform.Retrieved March 12, 2016.
  9. Choosing the ExoMars 2020 landing site. Retrieved December 31, 2018 (UK English).
  10. Oxia Planum ( English ) ESA. Retrieved April 2, 2019.
  11. Mawrth Vallis ( English ) ESA. Retrieved April 2, 2019.
  12. Aram Dorsum ( English ) ESA. Retrieved April 2, 2019.
  13. Hypanis Vallis ( English ) ESA. Retrieved April 2, 2019.
  14. Experts gather to determine ExoMars landing site. Accessed December 31, 2018 .
  15. Jump up ↑ Jorge Vargo, Francois Spoto, Markus Bauer: Oxia Planum favored for ExoMars surface mission. In: Robotoc Exploration of Mars. ESA, November 9, 2019, accessed on December 31, 2018 (English): "The ExoMars Landing Site Selection Working Group has recommended Oxia Planum as the landing site for the ESA-Roscosmos rover and surface science platform that will launch to the Red Planet in 2020. "
  16. Jonathan Amos: Mars robot to be sent to Oxia Planum . In: BBC News . November 9, 2018 ( bbc.com [accessed December 31, 2018]).
  17. ESA - Robotic Exploration of Mars - ExoMars Mission (2022). Retrieved August 27, 2020 .
  18. ESA: The ExoMars Rover Instrument Suite.Retrieved March 12, 2016.