ExoMars Launch Delayed 2 Years – In Part Due To Coronavirus
ExoMars to Take Off for the Red Planet in 2022, not 2020
“In the frame of a dedicated meeting, ESA and Roscosmos heads Jan Wörner and Dmitry Rogozin agreed that further tests to the spacecraft with the final hardware and software are needed. In addition, the parties had to recognise that the final phase of ExoMars activities are compromised by the general aggravation of the epidemiological situation in European countries.”
There is a first for everything.
If I recall they were already having issues with this mission because of the parachutes, so this seems to be taking advantage of the virus to give them more times to fix those issues.
They were talking about a delay before the virus was an obvious concern. And they were talking about the parachute problems before the first case was reported. Admittedly, they were trying to play down the parachute problems, but that’s still talking about them. I believe Italy and the United Kingdom are ESA states most heavily involved with ExoMars. A month ago, the plan was to have a meeting and asked themselves if they could fix the problems in time to launch this year. Many people suspected the answer would be maybe but probably not. Now they had the meeting, and asked themselves if they could do it with a major partner’s entire country mostly closed for business. I think the answer to that was pretty obvious.
Yes, it may be a blessing in disgiuse so they are able to fix the problems without rushing to meet a launch schedule.
That’s not at all uncommon. Not due to a disease, but do to other problems. Everyone would like more time to work on their system. Instrument builders, for example, always complain time for calibration. They always start with plans for extensive pre-flight calibrations, and that’s the first thing to be descoped when the schedule gets tight. Whenever something else delays the project, lots people of people breath a sigh of relief and think of all the “nice to have” things they now have time to do.
not sure parachutes were the only problem
Thanks for reminding me, and I just looked up the details. The other noted problem was some glue, on the solar panels, which didn’t make it through environmental testing in Cannes, France (I hadn’t known Thales was based there…). The plan was to ship it back to the manufacturer (a different Thales facility, I think) in Turin, Italy. Since Turin is in one of the regions most affected by COVID-19, that meeting about ExoMars 2020 must have been very short. As in,
“Not going to happen.”
“No, definitely not.”
“Well, since I had to come all this way for the meeting, we might as well talk about something else. Read any good books recently?”
“No, but I’m thinking of investing in Netflix. All this self-isolation is going to give people cabin fever.”
Or something like that.
Let’s hope Perseverance (and its L/V) will be ready in July.