The rover was built by Airbus in Stevenage and was scheduled to land on Mars in June 2023, where it was to drill deep into the planet looking for signs of life.
University College London has designed a “Pan-Cam” system, with special filters to scan the Martian surface looking for minerals that would prove there was once liquid water that could have hosted extraterrestrial organisms.
Once a location has been chosen, the rover will drill down six-and-a-half feet to take samples and feed them into a mobile laboratory, where they will be crushed up and examined for organic matter.
Scientists believe that confirmation of life could come within just weeks or months of the rover landing, but the mission has now been delayed indefinitely.
Russian Soyuz rocket also put on hold
In a statement released on Thursday, the ESA also said all missions scheduled for launch using the Russian Soyuz rocket from the European Spaceport in French Guiana have also been put on hold.
The decision comes after Roscosmos withdrew all personnel from the site after sanctions were imposed in February.
It means that the latest Galileo navigation satellites, the dark matter satellite Euclid and the cloud studying satellite EarthCare, have been postponed.
The agency is now looking for alternative launch systems and is reviewing whether the European Ariane 6 rocket could be used.
The ESA said in a statement: “As an intergovernmental organisation mandated to develop and implement space programmes in full respect with European values, we deeply deplore the human casualties and tragic consequences of the aggression towards Ukraine.
“While recognising the impact on scientific exploration of space, ESA is fully aligned with the sanctions imposed on Russia by its member states.”
The ESA said that The International Space Station Programme was continuing to operate nominally, adding that the main goal was to continue safe operations.
An extraordinary meeting will be held in coming weeks for new proposals to be submitted to allow the projects to continue.
