posted 05-16-2024 05:24 PM               

NASA, European Space Agency Unite to Land Europe's Rover on Mars

NASA and ESA (European Space Agency) announced Thursday (May 16) they signed an agreement to expand NASA's work on the ExoMars Rosalind Franklin rover, an ESA-led mission launching in 2028 that will search for signs of ancient life on the Red Planet.

With this memorandum of understanding, the NASA Launch Services Program will procure a U.S. commercial launch provider for the Rosalind Franklin rover. The agency will also provide heater units and elements of the propulsion system needed to land on Mars. A new instrument on the rover will be the first drill to a depth of up to 6.5 feet (2 meters) deep below the surface to collect ice samples that have been protected from surface radiation and extreme temperatures.

"The Rosalind Franklin rover's unique drilling capabilities and onboard samples laboratory have outstanding scientific value for humanity's search for evidence of past life on Mars," said Nicola Fox, associate administrator, Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "NASA supports the Rosalind Franklin mission to continue the strong partnership between the United States and Europe to explore the unknown in our solar system and beyond."

Through an existing, separate partnership with the German Aerospace Center (DLR) and the French space agency CNES (Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales), NASA is contributing key components to the Rosalind Franklin rover's primary science instrument, the Mars Organic Molecule Analyzer, that will search for the building blocks of life in the soil samples.

NASA has a longstanding partnership with the Department of Energy to use radioisotope power sources on the agency's space missions and will be partnering again with the Energy Department for the use of lightweight radioisotope heater units for the rover.

The Rosalind Franklin rover mission complements the Mars Sample Return multi-mission campaign led by both agencies.

posted 04-16-2026 07:38 PM               

NASA Begins Implementation for ESA's Rosalind Franklin Mission to Mars

NASA has given approval for the agency's Rosalind Franklin Support and Augmentation (ROSA) project to begin implementation, underscoring the agency's continued partnership with ESA's (European Space Agency) Rosalind Franklin mission. The mission is led by ESA and that agency is responsible for providing the spacecraft, including the carrier module, the landing platform, as well as the rover and surface operations.

Scheduled to launch in 2028, Rosalind Franklin will be the first Mars rover to search for signs of past or present life under the Red Planet's surface. The ROSA project will provide designated hardware and services to ESA in support of the Rosalind Franklin mission, including the launch service, braking engines for the rover's lander platform, and radioisotope heater units for the rover's internal systems. The project also includes specialized electronics and a state-of-the-art mass spectrometer for the Mars organic molecule analyzer science instrument, which will search for the building blocks of life in samples collected at the rover's landing site, Mars' Oxia Planum.

In early 2024, NASA and ESA signed a Memorandum of Understanding formalizing an agreement to expand NASA's work on the ExoMars Rosalind Franklin rover. Later that year, the KDP-A/B review approved ROSA's formulation start in Phase B, and the project successfully passed all the success criteria of its Preliminary Design Review.

NASA has selected SpaceX's Falcon Heavy rocket to launch the Rosalind Franklin mission from Launch Complex 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The mission is targeting opportunities to launch no earlier than late 2028.

NASA's Launch Services Program manages the launch service for this international effort and the agency competitively awarded the firm‑fixed‑price launch service task order under the indefinite‑delivery/indefinite‑quantity NASA Launch Services II contract.