Russia will never know if there is life on Mars.
the head of the agency, Josef Aschbacher, said on Tuesday.
“Today, the Council of the European Space Agency appealed to the ExoMars Rover and Surface Platform mission, recognizing that the circumstances that led to the suspension of cooperation with Roscosmos are the war in Ukraine and related to it sanctions – continue to prevail,” Josef Aschbacher wrote on Twitter.
The agency's board has instructed him to officially cease cooperation with Russia under this program.
On a different note, today @ESA Council addressed the ExoMars Rover and Surface Platform mission, acknowledging that the circumstances which led to the suspension of the cooperation with Roscosmos – the war in Ukraine and the resulting sanctions – continue to prevail.
— Josef Aschbacher (@Asch bacherJosef) July 12, 2022
“New details on further actions with other partners will be presented at a media briefing on July 20,” he added.
The ExoMars Rover, created in collaboration between ESA and the Russian space agency Roscosmos, was supposed to go to Mars in July 2020, but the flight was postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic. The next launch date was supposed to be September of this year. However, ESA said in February that Russia's invasion of Ukraine made it “highly unlikely.”
In March, the agency suspended cooperation with Roscosmos on their joint Mars mission due to the invasion of Ukraine and sanctions imposed on Russia.
The mission is designed to search for life on Mars and explore the history of water on the red planet. The rover has the ability to drill 6.5 feet (about 2 meters) below the Martian surface, where scientists hope to find signs of life.
