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British Mars expedition team faces setback

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The UK team working on the European Space Agency's 'ExoMars' rover, due to land on the red planet in 2014, has had its funding cut by 25%.

According to Professor Steve Schwartz, from Imperial College London, "this means for sure that some instruments won't fly", and that "some groups ... won't participate". With this reduction in the number of instruments that will be made by the UK team, it is likely that either "there will be science that ExoMars won't [be able to] do, or the UK will lose to some international competitor."

The latter seems more likely; humanity doesn't send a probe to Mars every day, and the designers understandibly want to learn as much as they can while they are there. It is however dissapointing that the UK will not be making as many, as institutions such as UCL have an excellent reputation in providing top class equipment and research.

Nevertheless, the ESA's ExoMars expedition promises a wealth of means to study the Red Planet, including tiny silicon 'microseismometers' to study 'Marsquakes', and instruments to study the weather.

Watch this space.
rwylie

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