Today's Image of Mars shows a potential 2018 landing site for the joint ESA-Roscosmos ExoMars Rover. This candidate site is in Cerberus Palus, but it is one of many potential landing sites for the ExoMars rover.
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| The original HiRISE image has no caption yet, so this will direct to other potential landing sites for the ExoMars rover. |
NASA was recently forced to back out of its obligation to provide material support for the mission worth more than $2 Billion. Russia's Roscosmos recently agreed to take over the portion of mission abandoned by NASA, quelling fears that most or all of the ExoMars missions would have to be scrapped.
While Roscosmos has agreed to increase their participation in the joint Mars mission, they have yet to formalize the agreement and cement out the specifics. The ESA and Roscosmos plan to finalize the agreement at some point in November. The important things for now is that the mission is still on schedule to launch the Trace Gas Orbiter in 2016 and the rover in 2018!
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