A3.3A Exomars Rosalind Franklin Mission: Development & Verification of the Martian Lander

Maria Antonietta PERINO

Director for Space Economy Exploration and International Network, Thales Alenia Space Italia

Italy

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In 2028 the ESA’s ExoMars Rosalind Franklin Mission (RFM) will be launched to attempt a new landing on Mars in 2030. This mission is rising from the previous mission, Exomars Rover Surface Platform (RSP) developed with Roscomos and later on cancelled due to the geopolitical crisis following events in Ukraine, by decision of the ESA Members States (July 2022). The new mission scenario defined by a joint ESA-NASA mission analysis effort foresees the baseline launch in September/October 2028 (baseline, hybrid T3 transfer profile) with a back-up option in December 2028 (backup, Earth-Mars –Mars profile). Two elements of the Spacecraft are already available: the Carrier Module and the Rover Module. The Descent Module and the Landing Platform require instead an almost complete re-development, with the exclusion of the already existing European contributions to the ExoMars 2022 Descent Module. These contributions consist of a number of avionics units, including the Inertial Measurement Unit, the Doppler radar assembly, the on board computer and the Parachute Assemblies, that will be also re-used for the new lander. The paper will synthetically describe the overall mission architecture, with a focus on the Entry Descent and Landing Module, and in particular on the technological development and verification necessary to achieve a successful landing on Mars.