Airbus UK to land Europe’s first rover on Mars
Airbus UK has been awarded £150m to complete the touchdown system for the Rosalind Franklin rover, the first European made rover that is due for launch to Mars in 2028.
The contract, awarded by the European Space Agency and funded through the UK Space Agency, is expected to sustain around 200 high-skilled jobs in the UK space sector and attract international investment.
The first UK-built rover’s mission is to explore the red planet and drill 2m down into the surface to search for signs of ancient life, such as fossilised microbes, to find out how our solar system came into being.
The mission is made possible by advanced UK robotics and autonomous navigation technologies, which can also be deployed in challenging environments on Earth, such as nuclear power plants and the deep ocean.
Named after the British scientist whose work was central to the understanding of the molecular structures of DNA, the rover will be the first European made rover to land on Mars.
In a statement, Paul Bate, CEO of the UK Space Agency, said: "This is humanity defining science, and the best opportunity to find if past life once existed on Mars.
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