ESA’s Mars Rover Is Cursed: The ExoMars Mission Has Faced 20 Years of Hardship and Bad Luck

Mars seems to have a special grudge against the European Space Agency (ESA)—and, more specifically, the ExoMars mission and its Rosalind Franklin rover. What promised to be a pioneering mission for Europe in the search for past life on the Red Planet has turned into a technological and geopolitical nightmare—a saga of misfortune that makes one wonder if the rover is cursed.

From NASA to Russia. The ExoMars odyssey began two decades ago, in 2005, with the goal of sending a rover to Mars in 2011. Initially conceived in collaboration with NASA, the mission suffered a major setback in 2012 when the U.S. agency pulled out due to cost overruns on projects such as the James Webb Space Telescope. NASA was also unhappy with Europe’s leading role in the mission.

This first blow forced ESA to scramble for a new partner. The Russian space agency Roscosmos agreed to provide Proton rockets for the two phases of the mission and a crucial element: the Kazachok descent module, which would be responsible for landing the rover on Mars.

A second setback. The mission’s first phase, launched in 2016, included the Trace Gas Orbiter, which remains operational in Mars orbit. It also included the Schiaparelli lander, designed to test Mars landing technologies.

Schiaparelli crashed into the surface after misinterpreting accelerometer readings—it mistakenly believed it had landed and jettisoned the canopy and parachute too early.

A pandemic. Back on Earth, the rover’s launch, initially set for 2018, was delayed to 2020 due to issues with the parachutes and delays in component delivery. Then the COVID-19 pandemic caused further setbacks, pushing the launch window to 2022.

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The rover was named Rosalind Franklin, honoring the British crystallographer whose X-ray diffraction images revealed DNA’s double helix structure.

And then war. Just when everything seemed to be (finally) on track—with the rover ready and months from launch—Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 shattered the collaboration. In an inevitable move, ESA suspended cooperation with Roscosmos, leaving the rover without a launch vehicle and, more importantly, a landing platform. It was a devastating blow.

But ESA didn’t throw in the towel. Member states pledged new funding, and ESA committed to developing a European landing platform. Thales Alenia Space was selected as the prime contractor in April 2024 with a roughly $585 million contract, but Airbus Defence and Space will design and build the landing module—which, ironically, closely resembles Russia’s Kazachok.

So, what now? Just when there was finally light at the end of the tunnel, the White House’s proposed budget for NASA appeared to rule out the U.S. agency’s contribution to the European rover.

According to Eric Berger, senior space editor at Ars Technica, NASA’s remaining contribution—in addition to the Mars Sample Return mission, in which Europe also participated—has been cut. It was a modest but critical element: plutonium-based RHU heaters.

For now, the launch date for the ExoMars mission and the Rosalind Franklin rover remains late 2028, with a landing on the Martian plain Oxia Planum planned for 2030. This timeline avoids Mars’s global dust storm season. The Rosalind Franklin rover will carry a drill capable of boring up to two meters below the surface, where potential biosignatures could be shielded from radiation.

Image | Airbus

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