What is "exomars"

ExoMars (Exobiology on Mars) is a two-part Martian astrobiology life searching project and joint mission of the European Space Agency (ESA) and Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos). ExoMars goals are to search for signs of past and present life on Mars, investigate how the Martian water and geochemical environment varies, investigate atmospheric trace gases and their sources and by doing so demonstrate the technologies for a future Mars sample return mission. The mission will search for biosignatures of Martian life, past or present, employing several spacecraft elements to be sent to Mars on two launches. The ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) and a test stationary lander called Schiaparelli were launched on 14 March 2016. The TGO will deliver the Schiaparelli lander on 19 October 2016, and then proceed to map the sources of methane on Mars and other gases, while the lander will test new key landing technologies for the 2020 mission. The TGO features four instruments and will also act as a communications relay satellite.

In 2020, a Roscosmos-built lander ( ExoMars 2020 surface platform) is to deliver the ESA-built ExoMars Rover to the Martian surface. The rover will also include some Roscosmos built instruments. The mission operations and communications is led by ALTEC's Rover Control Centre in Italy.

The ExoMars rover is a planned robotic Mars rover, part of the international ExoMars mission led by the European Space Agency and the Roscosmos State Corporation.

The plan calls for a Russian launch vehicle, an ESA carrier module and a Russian lander that will deploy the rover to Mars' surface. Once safely landed, the solar powered rover would begin a six-month (218- sol) mission to search for the existence of past or present life on Mars. The ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter, launched in 2016, will operate as the rover's data-relay satellite.

The spacecraft was scheduled to launch in 2018 and land on Mars in early 2019, but due to delays in European and Russian industrial activities and deliveries of the scientific payload, it was moved to the launch window in July 2020.