According to Savelev, a lander will also descend on Mars to test soft landing. The main part of the program will be carried out in 2018, when a Mars rover with scientific instruments, including the Russian ones, will land on the planet.
As published on the European Space Agency`s website, two missions are planned within the ExoMars program for 2016-2018. In 2016, the ExoMars project will launch an orbital probe to Mars, followed by the landing on the Martian surface of a lander module. In 2018, a Martian rover probe will be launched to explore the surface of the planet.
Both projects will be carried out with the help of a Russian Proton rocket.
In 2012, the European Space Agency and the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) agreed on developing the so-called ExoMars program with an objective to investigate the Martian environment and to find out whether life ever existed on the planet.
After the United States and its allies introduced several rounds of sanctions over Russia’s alleged role in escalating the Ukrainian crisis, there have been fears that Europe-Russia collaboration in Mars exploration could be hampered.
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