Europe’s scheduled mission to Mars has been delayed in part over the coronavirus outbreak.
The European Space Agency, along with its partner the Roscosmos space corporation, announced Thursday that it would delay its ExoMars mission, which was planning to send a rover to the red planet’s surface this year, partially because of COVID-19. The need for additional testing also contributed to the decision.
“We have made a difficult but well-weighed decision to postpone the launch to 2022,” said Roscosmos director general Dmitry Rogozin. “It is driven primarily by the need to maximise the robustness of all ExoMars systems as well as force majeure circumstances related to exacerbation of the epidemiological situation in Europe which left our experts practically no possibility to proceed with travels to partner industries.
“I am confident that the steps that we and our European colleagues are taking to ensure mission success will be justified and will unquestionably bring solely positive results for the mission implementation,” he continued.
The rover, entitled Rosalind Franklin, is expected to launch some time in the fall of 2022. Through the use of drills and other technologies, it would search for life “at depths up to two metres below the Martian surface, where biological signatures of life may be uniquely well preserved,” according to the release.
During the president’s remarks hours earlier, he announced a 30-day travel ban from all European countries, with the exception of the United Kingdom and Ireland, as nations such as Italy struggle to limit the virus’s spread. His announcement came after the World Health Organization declared the coronavirus a global pandemic.
COVID-19 cases have appeared in every continent except Antarctica since the virus first appeared in Wuhan, China last year. Worldwide, nearly 128,000 people have tested positive for the virus and it has killed at least 4,717 people. In the United States, more than 1,300 people have been diagnosed with coronavirus and at least 35 patients have died.
