Moscow. September 15. INTERFAX-A mock-up of the Rosalind Franklin rover of the Russian-European ExoMars-2022 mission extracted soil from a depth of 1.7 meters during tests, Roscosmos reported, citing materials from the European Space Agency (ESA).
"The test model of the rover of the Russian-European ExoMars-2022 mission "Rosalind Franklin" for the first time drilled the ground and extracted samples from a depth of 1.7 meters - this is much deeper than any other rover has ever done, " the report says.
According to ESA, the greatest drilling depth on the Red Planet today is 7 cm.
It is noted that drilling to a depth of up to two meters will allow studying well-preserved organic material that was formed four billion years ago, when conditions on the surface of Mars were more similar to those on Earth.
"To recreate the level of Martian gravity, where the gravity is about one-third of the Earth's, the Rosalind Franklin twin rover is supported on cables by a special unloading device. As a result, the twin rover took soil from a depth of 1.7 meters and received a sample of cemented rock in the form of a pellet about 1 cm in size and 2 cm in length," the report says.
Earlier it was reported that the Russian Proton-M carrier rocket, equipped with the Briz upper stage, with the ExoMars station will launch on September 22, 2022 at 17:10 Moscow time from the Baikonur cosmodrome. The reserve date is October 1, 2022.
The landing of the lander on the Red Planet after separation from the interplanetary station should take place in nine months - on June 10, 2023 at 18:32.
In March last year, ESA and Roscosmos announced the postponement of the launch of ExoMars from 2020 to 2022 due to the need for additional tests of updated equipment, as well as difficulties in operation due to the coronavirus pandemic.
ExoMars is a joint program of ESA and the Russian state corporation Roscosmos for the exploration of Mars, the main purpose of which is to search for evidence of the existence of life on the Red Planet in the past and present.
The ExoMars station consists of a European flight module and a Russian lander (landing module). The latter includes the Russian landing platform "Kazachok" and the European rover Rosalind Franklin.
