The European Space Agency has postponed the launch of Mars rover ExoMars until 2016

The European Space Agency (ESA) has postponed the launch of Mars rover ExoMars, reports BBC News. According to the agency, this is due to effuse over-budget project: The present value of machinery is about 1.2 billion euros.

ExoMars Originally planned as a relatively inexpensive device - "only" 650 million euros. However, in the development, it was decided to increase the size of Mars rover, as well as to establish a more sophisticated equipment. That led to a significant (nearly twofold) increase in the cost of the mission. As a result, Italy, which is the leading country in the development of the project, refused to finance it.

Spacecraft to Mars are launched only when the special positioning of the Earth and the Red Planet. This is to ensure that during the flight to use the gravity of planets, saving fuel. The collapse of the schedule of funding means that the launch date of 2013 was postponed to the nearest "convenient" year, which was in 2016.

According to ESA, agency has no plans to cut scientific functionality Mars rover to lower the cost. Instead, the Europeans would agree with Roskosmos and NASA on the possible financial and scientific involvement of these agencies in the mission. The Americans, for example, is already engaged in the project - they are developing several scientific instruments for ExoMars.