ExoMars Lander: Airbus Secures Key ESA Contract
Summary
Airbus, the European aerospace giant, has landed a major space contract from the European Space Agency (ESA) to develop part of its highly anticipated ExoMars mission. This new chapter breathes life back into Europe’s bold aspirations of exploring the Martian surface, following setbacks that delayed the mission several times.
The contract focuses on building the ExoMars Rosalind Franklin rover’s landing platform—a vital component that will ensure the mission gets off to a safe start. Originally planned for a 2022 launch with substantial contributions from Russia, the mission was postponed due to geopolitical tensions, which prompted ESA to search for new industrial partners—enter Airbus.
Set to launch by 2028, ExoMars is designed to dig beneath the Martian surface, searching for signs of ancient life using state-of-the-art instruments. Airbus will lead the engineering of the new landing platform at its UK and European facilities. This not only marks a pivotal step in European collaboration but cements Airbus’s status as a driving force in advanced space missions.
The ExoMars rover itself is named after Rosalind Franklin, the pioneering British scientist whose work contributed to the understanding of DNA. Once deployed, it will drill up to 2 meters into Martian soil—further than any rover has ever gone—to collect samples for analysis.
This contract is a significant milestone toward ESA’s strategic independence from non-European collaborations, highlighting the EU’s renewed commitment to playing a bigger role in space exploration.
