First SpaceX Mission to Mars Coming in 2028, Falcon Heavy to Launch New Mars Rover

American space agency NASA said it selected the SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket to launch ESA's Rosalind Franklin rover to Mars in 2028.

The last time humanity sent a rover to Mars was in 2020, when the Perseverance lifted off on top of an Atlas V rocket and headed out to the Red Planet to make history. The next rover is not scheduled to leave our world until 2028, but when it does, it will mark the world's largest private space company's first mission to Mars.

The rover I'm talking about is the Rosalind Franklin, the fruit of the European Space Agency's (ESA) ExoMars program, and the vehicle that will send it on its way to the neighboring planet has now officially been selected by NASA.

It's the SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket that will do the job, lifting off from Launch Complex 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida no earlier than late 2028. The moment is so important for Elon Musk's company that even the man himself announced the decision on X (see tweet below this text).

The announcement that NASA will go for the Falcon Heavy for launch is part of a larger set of decisions made by the American space agency concerning the Franklin. That's because, although the ESA is responsible for designing the spacecraft, the carrier module, and the landing platform, and will be in charge of rover and surface operations, NASA is knee-deep in the project as well.

More specifically, the Americans will supply "designated hardware and services" to support the mission, including the launch service, braking engines for the rover's lander platform, and radioisotope heater units for the rover's internal systems.

Important as it was, the Perseverance pales in comparison to the Franklin. That's because this new machine, the seventh overall to be sent to Mars, will be the first of its kind to search for signs of life, past or present, deep beneath the surface of the planet.

It will also be Europe's first rover to Mars, and its most ambitious space program to date. Named in honor of a British chemist who spent most of her life looking into the inner workings and secrets of DNA, the machine is the result of a continent-wide effort that involved, among others, giants Thales Alenia Space and Airbus.

The main thing that sets this rover apart from all the others is the massive drill it is equipped with. The thing is so big that it will have no problem digging deeper into the planet's crust than ever before, reaching up to two meters (6.6 feet) below the surface.

The depth is crucial to finding potential traces of life, because, as the previous six rovers (five American and one Chinese) have already shown over years of operation, there are slim chances of us finding something useful on the surface or just below it. That's because depth provides crucial protection against radiation and extreme temperatures.

By the time it launches, the Franklin will be some eight years overdue. The rover was supposed to leave our planet in 2020, carried into space by a Russian rocket. But then a series of technical issues pushed the launch to 2022, then that country decided to invade Ukraine, all hell broke loose, and the launch was scrapped.

As it stands, the first SpaceX mission to Mars (if simply launching a rover it had nothing to do with can be called that) will get it off the ground, setting it on a course to arrive on Mars' Oxia Planum two years later, in 2030, smack down between the planet's global dust seasons.

Once in orbit, the spacecraft carrying the rover will release a new kind of lander being put together by Airbus, which will drop and then glide down attached to parachutes and slowed down by retro rockets.

Once on the surface, the lander will extend two ramps, giving the Franklin the ability to choose which way to go, depending on risk assessments and what can be found on the ground. From the get-go, the machine will be able to operate autonomously to some degree.

As for the region selected for the rover to do business in, Oxia Planum is believed to have once been water-rich terrain, making it ideal to search for signs of life. Located near the Martian equator, the plain contains sedimentary deposits that are nearly four billion years old, giving us a chance to really look back into the past of the planet.

The entire site is 124 miles (200 km) wide, and it meets all the landing criteria for the rover, including latitude, elevation, and surface slopes. My only hope is that the Franklin ends up in just the right place in this rather large area for its mission to succeed.

Looking back at how our search for Martian life went with the previous rovers, and the many exciting discoveries made by the Perseverance, chances are we will finally be able to confirm the presence of alien life, past or present.