Rosalind Franklin, the European Space Agency, and ExoMars: a Mars Rover Mission to explore the Mediterranean Sea, with Solaris in 2020
The first European rover known as Rosalind Franklin is going to go to Mars by the year 2028.
The new funds will allow the European Space Agency to start work on a new landing platform for its first Mars rover. The work became necessary after the Russian space agency was severed from the project, due to the invasion of Ukraine. Roscomos was in charge of designing and building landing gear for the rover, as well as launching the mission from its site in Baikonur, Kazakhstan.
The German’s planetary scientist is relieved and happy that the mission was not taken away from him, and he hopes to someday steer a rover on Mars. Only the United States and China have so far placed working rovers on Mars.
“ExoMars is a really incredible mission that will be unique in method and scientific approach, even if launched in 2028,” says Francesca Esposito, a planetary scientist at the INAF Astronomical Observatory of Capodimonte in Naples, Italy, and member of the mission team.
“(It) will carry a drill with the unprecedented capability of reaching down to a depth of 2 meters (6.6 feet) to analyze sediments better protected against the harsh conditions on the Martian surface,” said study coauthor Alberto G. Fairén, research scientist at the Center of Astrobiology in Madrid and visiting scientist in Cornell University’s department of astronomy, in a statement.
Scientists thought the rocks in the sulle-bearing unit might only be evidence of water, but the rover is now showing signs of water. The rover found some of the clearest evidence to date of ancient waters.
The director-general ofESA said at a press briefing that the agency expects NASA to help by contributing the mission’s equipment, such as the brake and heating units. The units are needed to survive on the harsh Martian nights. European technology will replace the lost contribution of Russia, he said.
As part of this commitment, ministers agreed to fund the Solaris project, a programme to scope out the viability of developing, from 2025, a space-based solar-power system that would transmit energy to Earth. Nations worldwide are exploring technology to beam down energy from a kilometres-sized solar array in orbit, an idea that has become more viable given the plummeting costs of space launches.
The Perseverance Mars Sample Deposite: The First Sample Retrieval on Mars and the DeltaTop Campaign in Curiosity
NASA’s Perseverance rover has dropped the last of 10 sample tubes onto the surface of Mars, thereby completing humanity’s “first sample depot on another world.” Six weeks ago, the rover deposited titanium tubes filled with samples of rock and dust on Mars to be sent to Earth for further study.
The sample return on Mars is a long way off but deposits of the cores is an important first step. “We’re coming up on this really big and exciting milestone,” says Meenakshi Wadhwa, a planetary scientist at Arizona State University in Tempe and NASA’s principal scientist for the Mars sample return.
The depot will include crater floor samples of volcanically derived rock that will allow scientists to determine the age of rocks from a particular place on Mars for the first time. There are three things to look for in the collection, one sample of Martian dirt, one of Martian atmosphere and one witness tube.
While the table has been moved to Three Forks, Perseverance is still in good shape and will be travelling to nearby Delta Top to explore more of the area. The Jezero Crater is the subject of a campaign called DeltaTop that will investigate the origin of rocks and artifacts that are believed to have been carried by an ancient river.
The focus of the main mission is the future reclamation of the Martian samples. The MAV was built by the Defense contractor for the first time, and will be the first rocket to ever launch from another planet, if it is successful.
It’s estimated by NASA that the sample retrieval landers won’t land until at least 2033, and that the collected samples aren’t expected to arrive on Earth until at least 2034.
The researchers wrote that the return of samples to Earth was very important in determining whether or not life ever existed on Mars.
The wave-marked rocks were found about one-half mile (800 meters) into Curiosity’s ascent of Mount Sharp. The rover traveled over rocks that were recently formed as it climbed higher. That was the reason for researchers not to see clear markers of a large body of water.
The sulfate-bearing unit is located below the Mount Sharp mountain, which is 18,000 feet (5,300 meter) high. The sulfate-bearing unit is thought to be a place with clues about how and why Mars became frozen and scientists have been trying to explore more depth there.
Exploring the Marker Band Valley on Mars: Discovery of dark microbiomes in the Atacama Desert of Mount Sharp and the need for new tools
“Billions of years ago, waves on the surface of a shallow lake stirred up sediment at the lake bottom, over time creating rippled textures left in rock,” according to a NASA news release.
Specifically, the rocks were discovered in what’s called the Marker Band Valley, a zigzag formation of rocks that stands out against the landscape, thanks to its darker coloring. In 2022. the Marker Band feature was explored by the rover and found to have thin, hard rocks that are a scalelike pattern.
NASA says that the rover tried to extract some of the samples but they were too hard for the drill. Scientists are hoping the vehicle will make some softer spots to sample collection as it treks through the country.
The base of Mount Sharp has been climbed by the rover since 2014, after a decade of exploring the Martian surface. Scientists are interested in the mountain because it is believed to be the site of lifeform such as yeast and moulds. That is if there ever was any on the red planet.
If life existed on Mars billions of years ago, only low levels of organic matter are expected to remain, which means that identifying past signs of life on Mars will be incredibly difficult with current technology, according to the study.
The driest place on Earth, the Atacama Desert, was used to test the scientific tools. The arid desert was a good match for scientists because it was the same age as Mars. The 100 million-year-old riverbed resembles Jezero Crater and its ancient river delta on Mars.
The researchers collected samples from the riverbed and tested them using sensitive laboratory equipment. When pushed to the brink of their detection limits, the lab equipment analysis revealed a mixture of biosignatures that came from both extinct and living microorganisms. Red Stone is near the ocean, where fog rolls in and provides water for life.
Many of the genomes of thebacteria are from a dark microbiome, which is a nickname given to the genetic material of previously unknownbacteria. The researchers coined the term because it’s similar to dark matter — a hypothetical form of matter in the universe that remains unidentified.
The need for more powerful tools was highlighted in the study by the lead study author, Dr. Azua-Bustos.
The first Mars samples will need to be taken care of, according to a staff planetary scientist at NASA Ames Research Center. He wasn’t involved in the research.
“Any biological activity in these samples presumably took place billions of years ago, and only a few small samples can be brought to Earth for study,” Stoker wrote. It’s not known if life can be found in the limited samples. We must be cautious about interpreting absence of strong evidence of life as evidence of its absence!”