Rosalind Franklin (rover)
planned robotic Mars rover
Rosalind Franklin, previously known as the ExoMars rover, is a planned European robotic Mars rover, part of the international astrobiology programme ExoMars led by the European Space Agency (ESA). The rover is named after Rosalind Franklin, a British chemist and DNA research pioneer. Rosalind Franklin will be the first Mars rover to drill into a depth of up to two metres below the planet's surface. The rover was designed to search for biomolecules or biosignatures from past life. Its core task is to determine whether life ever existed on Mars, or still does today. As of 2026, Rosalind Franklin is expected to launch in 2028 on a Falcon Heavy rocket. The rover, together with the Airbus-built landing platform EDLM, will travel to Mars inside the Descent Module, connected to the Carrier Module. The Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO), launched in 2016, will operate as the data-relay satellite of Rosalind Franklin.
History
Overview
In mid-2010s, the mission was scheduled to launch in early 2020s in cooperation with the Russian Roscosmos. The Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022 caused a delay of the programme, as the member states of ESA voted to terminate the cooperation.
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