posted 04-22-2018 01:08 PM               

This topic is for comments and questions in response to the updates under: ESA ExoMars 2022 rover, Roscosmos platform.

ExoMars 2022 comprises a European rover and a Russian surface platform that will land on Mars. The ExoMars 2022 rover will search for signs of life, collecting samples with a drill and analyzing them with next-generation instruments.

ExoMars is the first mission to combine the capability to move across the surface and to study Mars at depth.

posted 04-22-2018 01:13 PM               

So, here it is. Europe's Mars rover. Or rather, a copy of it.

This is what they call the Structural Thermal Model, or STM. It is one of three rovers that will be built as part of the European Space Agency's ExoMars 2020 mission to search for life on the Red Planet. And, no, we're not sending all three to the Red Planet.

The STM is used to prove the design. It will go through a tough testing regime to check the rover that does launch to Mars — the "flight model" — will be able to cope with whatever is thrown at it.

posted 09-11-2019 07:45 AM               

The problems with the parachutes may be worse than has publicly been reported, however. Ars has learned of at least one other parachute failure during testing of the ExoMars lander. Moreover, the agency has yet to conduct even a single successful test of the parachute canopy that is supposed to deploy at supersonic speeds, higher in the Martian atmosphere.