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A circa 2015 visualization of the ExoMars rover on the surface of Mars. Credit: ESA

Click to enlarge. Credit: NPO Lavochkin

The completed structural mockup of the ExoMars lander being processed at NPO Lavochkin circa 2018. Click to enlarge. Credit: NPO Lavochkin

Artist depiction of the ExoMars landing as envisioned in 2025. Click to enlarge. Credit: NPO Lavochkin

Airbus to replace Russian-built ExoMars lander

A European aerospace contractor was tapped to lead the development of the landing platform for the ExoMars life-searching rover after Europe killed Russia's chance to put its hardware on the Red Planet in response to Putin's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

Previous chapter: ExoMars rover project in 2022 (INSIDER CONTENT)

Artist rendering of the ExoMars rover disembarking from the lander as envisioned in 2025.

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ExoMars project in 2023 and 2024

In the three years after canceling its cooperation with Russia on the ExoMars rover, just months before its planned launch in 2022 (INSIDER CONTENT), the European Space Agency, ESA, turned back to NASA for critical support, such as launch services. (Ironically, it was a US decision in 2011 not to participate in the ExoMars mission that resulted in ESA's 2013 agreement with Roskosmos to launch its life-searching rover on a Russian Proton rocket.)

The 2024 US fiscal year budget proposal, released on March 9, 2023, said that it would support NASA's contribution into the ExoMars project. During the subsequent teleconference, NASA promised $30 million for the purpose in 2024, but the subsequent investment was yet to be determined.

By 2024, the European lander for the ExoMars project was reported to be in development, while all the Russian instruments that had been installed on the rover were removed and returned to Russia. According to Lev Zeleny, the Director of Moscow-based Space Research Institute, IKI, the cancellation of the ExoMars project effectively killed the Russian Mars exploration program for the foreseeable future, not counting individual scientific instruments that operated on previously launched US and European spacecraft. By most accounts, Roskosmos had no resources to build a Mars probe of its own, while the returned ExoMars lander hardware was only good for a museum without its European components.

In November 2023, Aberystwyth University in Wales, UK, said that it would develop a new infrared spectrometer, called Enfys (or "rainbow" in Welsh) for ExoMars under an agreement with the UK Space Agency that funded the replacement of Russian components on the rover. It would be installed on the mast of the rover and used for the identification of minerals for sampling and analysis on the Martian surface. The same team had already led the development of the camera system for the rover.

In the meantime, based on the experience of NASA's Spirit and Opportunity rovers, European specialists planned to equip the rover with a modified "drive train" that would make it possible to walk on the surface rather then drive when facing soft soil. The rover was still expected to dig into the Martian soil up to two meters in depth in order to reach potential signs of biological activity not affected by ionizing radiation from space, which is capable of penetrating as deep as 1.5 meters into the soil. (1047)

On May 16, 2024, ESA and NASA signed a Memorandum of Understanding for the supply of the launch vehicle, throttleable braking engines from NASA and radioisotope heaters from the US Department of Energy, DOE. ESA also reconfirmed the plan to launch the mission in 2028. At the time, the Preliminary Design Review for the rover's system was scheduled for June 2024, ESA said.

Airbus gets ExoMars lander contract

With most of the critical aspects of the ExoMars rover's re-configuration taken care of by 2025, the last major piece of the puzzle remaining to be put in place was the substitute for the Russian-built lander.

On March 29, 2025, Europe's leading aerospace firm Airbus Defense and Space announced that it had won a contract from ESA and Thales Alenia Space (the ExoMars prime contractor) to replace the Russian-built ExoMars lander with a new system. According to the company, its team in Stevenage, UK, "will design mechanical, thermal and propulsion systems necessary for the landing platform to ensure the touchdown is safe in 2030" (provided by launch in 2028). This hardware would include "the landing structure, the large propulsion system used to provide the final braking thrust, and the landing gear to ensure the lander is stable on the touchdown," the company said.

The short description and the renderings accompanying the announcement appear to envision a vehicle conceptually similar to the rejected Russian-built platform: "The lander will feature two ramps that will be deployed on opposite sides to enable the rover to be driven onto the Martian surface using the least risky route."

The March 29, 2025, press-release also re-confirmed the planned ExoMars launch in 2028 on a US launcher.

According to the UK Space Agency, the contract to the British division of Airbus was worth £150 million.

Page author: Anatoly Zak; Last update: March 30, 2025

Page editor: Alain Chabot; Last edit: March 30, 2025

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