Europe鈥檚 bold attempt to search for life on Mars will launch as planned in 2020, despite concerns over escalating costs and the spectacular loss of the mission鈥檚 lander demonstrator.
European Space Agency (ESA) member states agreed to stump up the extra 440 million euro (拢370 million) needed to ensure the future of聽the ExoMars Rover.
The mission, the second stage of a two-part programme costing 1.3 billion euro (拢1.09 billion), is due to land a on the Red Planet in 2021 to drill into the Martian soil and look for biochemical traces of living or dead microbes.
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European science ministers decided to back the mission at a pivotal ESA council meeting in Lucerne, Switzerland.
鈥淭oday I am very confident that we will do it,鈥� said the space agency鈥檚 director general, . 鈥淲e need to work hard because it鈥檚 not only some rover, we have the payloads from different sources 鈥� all of this has to pack together. It鈥檚 not an easy thing, but we are confident that we will succeed.鈥�
However he said there had been 鈥渘o free ticket鈥� from the member states. 贰虫辞惭补谤蝉听would, at least initially, 鈥渆at up鈥� the whole of a 1 per cent per year increase in ESA鈥檚 science budget, which was also agreed at the meeting.
Chequered past
The ExoMars Rover has had a chequered history and come close to being abandoned on more than one occasion.
Originally it was to have been a joint enterprise with NASA, but the American space agency pulled out and a new partnership was formed with Russia鈥檚 agency, Roscosmos.
In May, the launch date was put back two years because of problems with delivering hardware. A technical review then concluded that the mission could be secured only with extra funding.
鈥淔or us, a further delay is no option,鈥澛燱orner said at the press conference in Lucerne.
ExoMars suffered a serious setback in October when the demonstrator lander Schiaparelli, designed to test the rover鈥檚 landing system, crashed on the surface of Mars. Experts have said lessons would be learned from the loss, caused by a glitch that meant the probe sensed it had landed when still more than a mile above the planet鈥檚 surface.
The Trace Gas Orbiter spacecraft which carried Schiaparelli to Mars is said to be functioning well. Next year it will start sniffing the planet鈥檚 atmosphere for trace gases including methane, which may indicate the presence of life.
A drastic option to continue with the orbiter mission while scrapping the rover was not in the end pursued by ESA member states.
The briefing was also told that Britain had pledged to maintain its stake in ESA鈥檚 International Space Station (ISS) activities.
鈥淭he UK has provided the amount of funding requested for the space station and indeed has made some indications about longer term commitment as well, so it was positive,鈥� said , the agency鈥檚 director of human spaceflight and robotic exploration.
Member states committed to invest a total of 10.3 billion euros (拢8.68 billion) in space science, exploration and out-reach programmes over the next two years.
