The wheels continue to turn on Europe’s billion-euro project to put a robotic rover on the surface of the Red Planet.
Engineers working towards the flagship ExoMars mission have unveiled a sophisticated new vehicle prototype.
The demonstrator will test a possible suspension and locomotion set-up to be built into the final rover design.
ExoMars, which has yet to receive final sign-off from space ministers, is scheduled to leave Earth in 2013 and land on the fourth planet a year later.
It will carry a suite of instruments across the Martian landscape, looking for signs of past or present life.
The new prototype, developed by the Canadian MDA Corporation, will help engineers understand how the real rover will behave when it moves through the rocky terrain.
“This will be the first element that touches the surface of Mars as ExoMars rolls off the lander,” explains Nadeem Ghafoor, MDA’s manager of planetary exploration.
“And when you’ve decided where you want to go, this is the system that gets you there and gets you over any obstacles on the way,” he told BBC News.
- Tags: ExoMars, Mars, MDA Corporation, Red Planet, Robotic, Vehicle Prototype
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