Although the Martian project ExoMars-2022 with the participation of the Russian and EU space agencies, it seems, will no longer be implemented, the parties have reached an agreement to return equipment to each other. According to Kommersant, the program to explore the Red Planet, launched back in 2001, was terminated in the summer of 2022.
Image Source: ESA
The ExoMars-2022 interplanetary space station was supposed to include a Russian landing module with a landing platform, as well as a European Space Agency (ESA) rover. The launch of the mission was expected already in the fall of last year using the Proton-M rocket with the Breeze-M upper stage. It is known that at the first stage the parties have already launched to Mars in 2016 a space station for the Martian orbit. Although Russia’s financial contribution is relatively small and amounts to about 10%, the country has a number of technologies necessary to carry out the mission, some of the equipment was stored in Europe at the time the sanctions confrontation began.
“In order to prepare for the return of the Russian material part (landing module with a landing platform and scientific instruments), the necessary work is being carried out at the Thales Alenia Space Italy enterprise in Turin (Italy) with the participation of Russian specialists,” Roscosmos said.
It is known that Roskosmos and the Russian Academy of Sciences are exploring the possibility of implementing their own Martian project based on already prepared technologies, it is possible to attract new foreign partners, since ESA ceased cooperation with Russia as part of the ExoMars project in the summer of 2022. According to Kommersant, at the same time, it was proposed to organize a mutual return of equipment.
The fate of other equipment that is inaccessible to owners due to the termination of cooperation between Russia and individual countries is still unknown. In particular, a batch of OneWeb satellites remained at the disposal of Roskosmos and their fate has not yet been determined.
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