Space exploration, if Star Trek is to be believed, is all about bringing people together. And occasionally phasering Romulans, but we haven’t seen any of those in ages. Indeed, the ExoMars mission hoped to bring different countries together, so they could collectively destroy Martian landers.
But the fate of ExoMars is now in doubt. Why? Well, we shouldn’t have to point too hard at what’s happening over in Ukraine. ExoMars is a joint mission between the European Space Agency and Roscosmos, the Russian equivalent of NASA. Things… aren’t going well there right now.
Invasion blocks ExoMars
It turns out, it’s really hard to co-operate on an international project when one of the countries involved is having sanctions levied against it. The ESA is comprised of 22 different European nations. Those nations, part of the EU, are imposing sanctions on Russia for its actions in Ukraine. It’d look awfully weird if the space agency just carried on as if nothing was wrong. So they’re not. Probably. Maybe.
The agency issued a statement where it pointed out the above. The ESA says it is “…assessing the consequences on each of our ongoing programmes conducted in cooperation with the Russian state space agency Roscosmos”. This includes participation on the International Space Station, because NASA and the US will have a few things to say about that. The likelihood of the next stage of the ExoMars project going ahead is also heavily in doubt. You know, the bit where they actually get the rover and surface platform down in one piece? The one planned for later this year? Yeah, that might not happen at all.
“Regarding the ExoMars programme continuation, the sanctions and the wider context make a launch in 2022 very unlikely. ESA’s Director General will analyse all the options and prepare a formal decision on the way forward by ESA Member States.”
Or maybe it will take place. The launch has yet to be officially scrubbed. It’s possible we’ll get our happy, friendly United Federation of Planets after all. Probably not, though.