Abstract EANA2025-27

Introduction:

Finding signs of life elsewhere constitutes one of the most important scientific objectives of our time.

From the very beginning, in 2002, ExoMars was conceived to answer one question:  Was there ever life on the red planet?  All design decisions have focused and continue to centre on achieving this scientific goal.  Placing the Rosalind Franklin rover team in the best condition to search for physical and chemical biosignatures has led to:

1. The need for a 2-m depth drill.
2. The choice of payload.
3. The requirements for the science potential and age of the landing site.
4. The surface exploration strategy.

The Rosalind Franklin Mission (RFM) is and evolution of the 2022 Rover and Surface Platform (RSP) mission [1].  RFM is on schedule to launch in the latter part of 2028 and land at Oxia Planum in 2030.

 

Pasteur Payload:

Rosalind Franklin’s Pasteur Payload is a suite of complementary scientific instruments.  For macroscopic investigations, the rover relies on PanCam [2] —a stereo pair of wide-angle multispectral cameras (WACs) and a narrow-angle, high-resolution camera (HRC)— and on the NavCam navigation cameras —a lower-resolution, monochromatic pair.  A newly developed infrared spectrometer ‘Enfys’ [3] will study mineralogical signatures at targeted locations.  The CLUPI instrument [4] serves as a geologist’s hand-lens, allowing close-up characterization of surface lithologies. The WISDOM ground penetrating radar [5] will reveal subsurface structures to survey potential drilling sites.  Ma_MISS is an IR spectrometer with a head near the drill tip to study the mineralogy of borehole walls [6].  In the rover’s Analytical Laboratory Drawer (ALD), the mineralogy and organic chemistry of samples obtained by the drill will be determined using the MicrOmega imaging IR spectrometer [7], the Raman Laser Spectrometer, RLS [8], and Mars Organic Molecule Analyser (MOMA) [9] (which combines gas-chromatography and laser desorption with a linear ion trap mass spectrometer).

 

New lander: 

A European Entry Descent and Landing Module (EDLM) is being developed to deliver Rosalind Franklin to Oxia Planum.  The EDLM contains sensor packages that will support EDL and environmental characterisation at the surface during the first few sols after landing. Amongst them are the CoMars+ suite (installed on the heat shield), with sensors for pressure, thermal flux and radiometry; a set of four cameras for imaging the descent; and the Platform Atmospheric Characterisation Instrument Suite (PACIS), with a pressure and a temperature sensor plus a microphone.  Telemetry from the Radar Doppler Altimeter (RDA) and Inertial Measurement Unit(s) (IMU), together with data from the above packages, support the Atmospheric Mars Entry and Landing Investigations and Analysis (AMELIA) team [12], which is renewed for the 2028 mission opportunity.

 

Team Activities: 

The ExoMars Science Working Team (ESWT), ExoMars project and industrial partners have established a programme for refurbishing the rover and its instruments, and for preserving science team expertise and knowledge. The revised mission timeline provides the Rover Science Operations Working Group (RSOWG) with time for further preparatory science, including of the Oxia Planum landing site [10][11] and its analogues.

This presentation will explain how ESA, with NASA’s partnership, has reconfigured the Rosalind Franklin Mission for a launch in 2028.  We will describe the current the level of advancement of the project and highlight the main science objectives and overall strategic plan for the mission.

 

References:

[1] J. L. Vago et al., Astrobiology 17 (2017)

[2] A. J. Coates et al., Astrobiology 17 (2017)

[3] A. J. Coates et al., in Europlan. Sci. Cong., Abs. 927 (2024)

[4] J.-L. Josset et al., Astrobiology 17 (2017)

[5] V. Ciarletti et al., Astrobiology 17 (2017)

[6] M. C. De Sanctis et al., Astrobiology 17 (2017)

[7] J.-P. Bibring et al., Astrobiology 17 (2017)

[8] F. Rull et al., Astrobiology 17 (2017)

[9] F. Goesmann et al., Astrobiology 17 (2017)

[10] P. Fawdon, et al., J. of Maps 20 (2024)

[11] J. McNeil et al., Nature Geoscience 18, 124–132 (2025)

[12] F. Ferri et al., Space Sci. Rev. 215 (2019)