I did a(n all too) brief
summary in the Not Yet WW3 thread of how the current events sparked by Russia, and the resulting sanctions, might affect impending launches by Roscosmos/etc. I meant to scan further ahead, but never got round to it.
However, it's been publically announced that the 2022 launch of British-built Rosilind Franklin rover, which was due to be sent on the ExoMars joint ESA/Russia project, is now unlikely to go ahead. All the bits are built (including the Russian components for landing it) but, well... now messy in various ways, not the least politically.
Theoretically, a different launch system could be sourced, there are a few obvious providers with the right sort of capabilities to get heading Marsward. A different descent (and possibly pre-descent) system would need to be built from scratch, though. Unless, if we're lucky, an adapted version can be cobbled together from prior mission 'spares' for similar setups!
I haven't checked to see if the RF is currently still 'in the west' or is already in Russia (depends on where in the remaining pre-flight testing/rigging cycle it is) so that could be an active problem too. I think it's a few months off
needing to be married to the Russian hardware, though.
(Not a huge thing, on the human scale, but definitely a problem when you've got optimal Mars-transfer slots only coming round every few years.)
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Topic: Space Thread (Read 219514 times)