Delay seems likely as parachute problems plague European Mars lander

The European and Russian space agencies have announced they will decide the fate of their ExoMars mission at a meeting on March 12.The joint mission to deliver a rover and suite of scientific instruments to the surface of the red planet is set for a July on a Proton rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. However, serious questions were raised about the viability of the lander's complicated parachute systems last year and ongoing problems in testing them.According to a spokesperson for the European Space Agency (ESA), a "working-level review" for the project was held among ESA and Roscosmos officials in late January, and a preliminary assessment was forwarded to the respective heads of the space agencies, Jan Wörner of ESA and Dmitry Rogozin of Roscosmos, on February 3."They instructed the respective inspectors general and program chiefs to submit an updated plan and schedule covering all the remaining activities necessary for an authorization to launch," the ESA spokesperson said. In October 2016, the European Space Agency failed to successfully land its Schiaparelli lander after the spacecraft jettisoned its parachute earlier than expected.This will be a busy year for Mars launches.