#SpaceX will launch the #ESA’s Rosalind Franklin #Mars rover, perhaps as soon as late 2028, on a #FalconHeavy rocket

[spaceflight@spacey.space]

RE: https://mastodon.social/@arstechnica/116417915564288153

#SpaceX will launch the #ESA’s Rosalind Franklin #Mars rover, perhaps as soon as late 2028, on a #FalconHeavy rocket

[spaceflight@spacey.space]

The #Rosalind rover has a 2-meter drill to collect deeper samples than any previous #Mars mission, ground-penetrating radar to see up to 3 meters and a neutron spectrometer to locate promising underground water-rich deposits https://www.planetary.org/space-missions/exomars-rover

#ESA #ExoMars

[spaceflight@spacey.space]

Active #Mars missions

• #Perseverance 🛞
• #Curiosity 🛞

• #Zhurong 🛞🪫*

• #MarsOdyssey ️
• #Tianwen1 ️
• #Hope ️
• #ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter ️
• #MRO Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter ️
• #MarsExpress ️
• #ESCAPADE ️

• #MAVEN ️ **

*🪫likely too much dust on its solar panels to generate power
** likely unrecoverable but not yet declared inactive

Active, past, future missions : https://www.planetary.org/space-missions/every-mars-mission

Picture CC BY-NC 3.0 https://www.planetary.org/space-images/the-mars-exploration-family-portrait

[spaceflight@spacey.space]

The #Mars Relay Network (#MRN) is an international constellation of spacecraft orbiting the Red Planet that send #science data from surface rovers back to Earth

• #MarsOdyssey ~ 170.4 Mb/day
• #MRO ~ 447.5 Mb/day
• #ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter ~ 1,562.7 Mb/day
• #MarsExpress - #ESA backup orbiter
https://science.nasa.gov/mars/mars-relay-network/

2021, ESA’s Mars Express spacecraft carried out experimental #communication tests with the Chinese (#CNSA) #Zhurong Mars rover https://www.esa.int/Enabling_Support/Operations/A_one-way_phone_call_at_Mars

#SpaceCommunication

[spaceflight@spacey.space]

#NASA is looking into developing a relay system of #communications satellites placed in other locations in the #SolarSystem , which could cut down the two-week blackout (when the Sun is between Earth and #Mars ) to just a few hours. #LaserCommunications would allow for more data per second, with superior signal fidelity https://www.planetary.org/articles/challenges-facing-the-human-exploration-of-mars

#SpaceCommunication