It's not only a launcher issue (and given the timeline, switching launcher is unlikely feasible even if the rocket is available). The descent module is russian made (with ESA bits in it), so the rover is now stuck. This launch window is dead.
Stopping the partnership with Roscosmos means redeveloping a descent module and either collaborate with NASA/JPL or develop new technologies from scratch in Europe. Even 2 years is optimistic for this.
In the moments like this I appreciate even more what Elon Musk is doing, its private business, less govt interference, within USA(IMO there is no better country than USA at this moment), and he is relentless on making humans multi planet species.
My comment was not at all on the post itself or current affaires. I'm big fan of space exploration regardless of which country achieves success. I was just appreciating the fact that Elon has build SpaceX in a way that it minimize things outside his control so that his mission can succeed.
> On 26 February 2022, Rogozin posted a video threatening to leave US astronaut Mark T. Vande Hei in space and separate Russian modules of the space station altogether.[29][30] In March, Roscosmos produced a mocked-up video portraying this, with cosmonauts saying goodbye to Vande Hei and detaching the Russian segment from the ISS. [0]
While reading this update, I can't help but think about the book Seveneves whose whole message seemed to be think of what we could accomplish if we just looked beyond this Red vs Blue crap.
Not quite sure that was the message of Seveneves; there was quite a bit of rancor and political sniping that escalated to a horrible climax once the mission was already underway. A 'humanity at its best and worst' book, as Stephenson is fond of making.
Not that I'm sticking up for Russia here, but I think that assumes that there is a universal canonical "right" and a canonical "wrong", which I am not convinced about.
It was wrong for the West to taunt Putin with baby steps to perhaps, maybe, someday, having Ukraine in NATO. It was wrong for Zelensky to see the build up of troops on his border and do nothing for a good solid three months leading up to the invasion.
But none of that makes Russian troops invading, shelling and bombing hospitals, violating evacuation corridor agreements by firing on fleeing civilians, or any of the other senselessly hostile things they've done OK. They are wrong, their actions are evil.
I realize you're not sticking up for Russia, but I do think that if we're talking morals, it doesn't require moral absolutes (which I do think exist, but that's another discussion) to be able to judge the current situation. That is, I don't think condemning Russia's actions requires a priori agreement to a universal canonical moral standard.
Regardless of how you choose to phrase it and how unavoidable it may be, it is a detour that's hindering our ability to expand our understanding and improve our way of life.
Isn't this exactly and example of looking beyond red vs blue (or east and west)? We should never have been doing joint space mission with Putin's Russia. It just fed Putin money, glory and technology. We lost some of our own space capability, and still got an invasion of Ukraine.
This whole affair is pretty much a culmination in failure of the great thought experiment that started in the 1990s - that the spread of capitalism and trade with dictatorships and authoritarian regimes would undermine those venues and lead to the rise of democracy and other freedoms by opening them to the world.
Instead what we've found is we just grant those entities legitimacy and influence over our own affairs, while letting them change not at all. Wealth and power without any of the requisite social development. We've got China building the Great Internet Firewall specifically to keep Western ideas out but let the money come in, and we've allowed our tech companies to freely supply them the equipment and skills to do it.
