Rosalind Franklin Rover
ESA-led ExoMars rover scheduled for 2028 launch (per jeffrey-kluger in src-mars-organics-fresh-clues-2026-04) after multiple delays. Will carry a 2-meter subsurface drill and a TMAH-style wet-chemistry organic-detection suite building on the April 2026 SAM success aboard curiosity-rover (src-curiosity-mars-life-molecules-2026-04).
The mission is named after Rosalind Franklin, the X-ray crystallographer whose work was foundational to the discovery of DNA’s structure.
Astrobiology relevance
The 2-meter drill targets organics shielded from cosmic-ray-induced destruction in shallow Martian regolith — a key motivation given the 2026 NASA Goddard finding that pure Martian ice preserves amino acids 10× better than ice-soil mixtures (src-mars-ancient-life-ice-survival-2026-02).