ExoMars 2020 Rover and Lander Get Names: ‘Rosalind Franklin’ and ‘Kazachok’

Artists concept of the joint ESA/Roscosmos ExoMars 2020 mission showing the ESA rover newly named after distinguished scientist Rosalind Franklin and the science landing platform named ‘Kazachok’. ExoMars 2020 will launch in July 2020 on a Russian Proton rocket to land on Mars in April 2021. Credit: ESA

Ken Kremer  --SpaceUpClose.com & RocketSTEM –28 March 2019

CAPE CANAVERAL, FL – The major components of the ExoMars 2020 mission to the Red Planet have at last been named – the European-led rover is named ‘Rosalind Franklin’ after a distinguished scientist involved in determining the structure of DNA and the Russian-led surface science landing platform is named ‘Kazachok’ after a folk dance.

ExoMars 2020 is a joint cooperation between the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Russian Space agency, Roscosmos. 

The joint endeavor will launch in July 2020 on a Russian Proton rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan and land on Mars in April 2021. 

The landing platform will transport the solar powered rover to the Red Planet’s surface and both will be outfitted with science instruments to study the fourth planet from the sun and search for signs of life, past or present.

ESA ExoMars rover is named after distinguished scientist Rosalind Franklin and will launch in July 2020 on a Russian Proton rocket to land on Mars in April 2021. Credit: ESA

After safely soft landing on the Martian landscape atop the ‘Kazachok’ surface landing platform, the  ‘Rosalind Franklin’ rover will drive off the Kazachok platform to perform scientific investigations “in search of evidence of past – and perhaps even present – life buried underground,” says ESA.   

Meanwhile “Kazachok will remain stationary to investigate the climate, atmosphere, radiation and possible presence of subsurface water in the landing site.”  The name literally means little Cossack, and is a lively folk dance. 

ExoMars 2020 will launch the same years as NASA’s 2020 rover which is as yet unnamed. Both will be looking for signs of Martian life. 

The name ‘Rosalind Franklin’ was chosen by a panel of experts from over 36 000 entries submitted by citizens from all ESA Member States, following a competition launched by the UK Space Agency in July last year.

Rosalind Franklin with microscope in 1955.  Rosalind Elsie Franklin was a British chemist and X-ray crystallographer who contributed to unravelling the double helix structure of our DNA. She also made enduring contributions to the study of coal, carbon and graphite. Credit: MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology

“Rosalind Elsie Franklin was a British chemist and X-ray crystallographer who contributed to unravelling the double helix structure of our DNA. She also made enduring contributions to the study of coal, carbon and graphite,” said ESA.

The ExoMars rover will be the first of its kind to combine the capability to roam around Mars and to study it at a significant depth. 

Rosalind Franklin has been designed to drill down to two meters into the surface to sample the soil, analyse its composition and search for evidence of life past or present looking for life deep underground.   

“This name reminds us that it is in the human genes to explore. Science is in our DNA, and in everything we do at ESA. Rosalind the rover captures this spirit and carries us all to the forefront of space exploration,” says ESA Director General Jan Woerner, in a statement. 

The name was revealed in the ‘Mars Yard’ of the prime contractor Airbus Defence and Space in Stevenage, in the United Kingdom, where the rover is being built. 

“This rover will scout the martian surface equipped with next-generation instruments – a fully-fledged automated laboratory on Mars,” says ESA astronaut Tim Peake who met the winners of the naming competition. 

“With it, we are building on our European heritage in robotic exploration, and at the same time devising new technologies.” 

ExoMars 2020 landing platform packed for shipment. Credit: Roscosmos

The landing platform and descent module was built by Russian Lavochkin Association and recently shipped from Russia on an Antonov plane to the Italian division of Thales Alenia Space who will perform final assembly and testing of the mission and integration with the rover - in a combined European-Russian effort.  

“We have now a very challenging schedule of deliveries and tests both in Italy and France. The coordination between the Russian and European teams is key to timely reach the Baikonur Cosmodrome in 2020,” says François Spoto, ESA’s ExoMars team leader.

The integrated ExoMars spacecraft assembly will then be shipped to Baikonur for integration with the Proton rocket launcher.  

ExoMars 2020 landing platform artists concept.  Credit: Roscosmos

The landing site is yet to be chosen from 3 final candidates.  

ExoMars 2020 landing site candidates. Credit: ESA

The 828 kg lander (1825 lb.) includes a science payload of 45 kg with instruments and cameras provided from Roscosmos and ESA. 

The 310 kg (680 lb) rover includes a 26 kg (57 lb) science payload with a suite of research instruments, a 2 meter deep driller and cameras provided by Roscosmos and ESA as well as NASA’s most advanced soil sample analyzer designed to search for organic molecules and signs of life – even more powerful than the SAM instrument on NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover.

‘Rosalind Franklin’ is designed to operate for at least seven months and drive at least 4 km (2.5 mi) after landing.

Data and signals will be relayed back to Earth via ESA’s ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter which arrived in 2016 and searching for trace amounts of methane, which could be a hint of ongoing biological or geological processes released into the Martian atmosphere. 

Exomars lander platform. Unpacking the platform that is destined to land on the Red Planet as part of the next ExoMars mission in Turin, Italy. Credit: Thales Alenia Space

Watch for Ken’s continuing onsite coverage of NASA, SpaceX, ULA, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and more space and mission reports direct from the Kennedy Space Center, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida and Wallops Flight Facility, Virginia.

Stay tuned here for Ken's continuing Earth and Planetary science and human spaceflight news: www.kenkremer.com –www.spaceupclose.com – twitter @ken_kremer – email: ken at kenkremer.com

Dr. Kremer is a research scientist and journalist based in the KSC area, active in outreach and interviewed regularly on TV and radio about space topics.

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