Russia will start working on its own mission to Mars after the European Space Agency (ESA) suspended the joint Russian-European mission due to the invasion of Ukraine, Reuters reports, citing Interfax.
ESA announced on Thursday that it was impossible to continue cooperating with Russia as part of the ExoMars mission. Later this year, a Russian rocket was to carry a European-made rover to the red planet.
“In the near future we will start working on a mission to Mars,” said Dmitry Rogozin, head of Russia’s Roscosmos space agency. According to Interfax, Rogozin said he did not consider it necessary to include a rover in the mission because the landing unit could do the required scientific work.
Rogozin said there were “serious doubts” about what ESA could do without Russia, which already has the spacecraft, launch pad and landing unit. It would take ESA at least six years to develop its own landing unit, he said.
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