“Certainly one option we’re exploring, no decision has been made yet, but one option we’re exploring is also working more closely with NASA,” Aschbacher told Becky Anderson on CNN’s Connect the World on Friday.
Known both as ExoMars and Rosalind Franklin in honor of the English chemist and DNA pioneer, the rover was designed by ESA and the Russian space agency Roscosmos. The mission was due to launch in September this year, but ESA member states voted to put the project on hold, despite its late stage after 40 years of development.
“Geopolitically it is clear that we have to break away from Russia, and the member states have made this decision,” said Aschbacher. “So yes, it’s really unfortunate for all the science and technology and the engineers that have been working on this for four decades. But there is no other choice.”
Dmitry Rogozin, director general of the Russian Space Agency, described ESA’s position as “frenzied” and said in a Chinese TV interview that Roscosmos “considered further cooperation impossible”.
Despite this lack of cooperation with Russia, which “hampers” ESA’s work, Aschbacher said the agency has “options.”
“From a technological point of view, we can certainly do without the previous Russian expertise,” said Aschbacher. However, he stressed, “it is clear that we need to unravel what has been built up over many decades.”
Ties to the space station
There are currently four NASA astronauts, five Russian cosmonauts and one European astronaut on board the International Space Station, and relations are “professional,” said Aschbacher.
Rogozin previously said sanctions against Russia could “destroy” relations on the space station, but Aschbacher denied this, saying, “Regardless of nationality or origin, the astronauts are a team that needs to work together.”
Former NASA astronaut Scott Kelly told CNN last year that “these terrestrial political tensions will never be carried over to space.” Kelly and Rogozin recently exchanged barbs on Twitter, but the retired astronaut is pulling out of the Twitter war.
However, a central concern of the ESA are cyber attacks, which Aschbacher told CNN have recently increased.
“We are regularly monitoring the situation day and night very closely. As you can imagine, we see a certain intensification of the experiments. But I have to say that our system is quite resilient,” he said.
He refused to say how many cyberattack attempts came from Russia.