ExoMars rover undergoes teleoperated desert tests

The ExoFiT Mars rover testing team has been using a prototype rover called ‘Charlie’ to test hardware, software and to practise science operations for the future European Space Agency (ESA) ExoMars rover, which will start exploring the Red Planet in 2021.

The team has practised driving Charlie off its lander, identifying and travelling to a geological outcrop, and then taking rock samples with its drill.

“After the Earth, Mars is the most habitable planet in the Solar System, so it’s a perfect destination to explore the possibility of life on other planets, as well as the history of our own,” said Graham Turnock, CEO UK Space Agency. “These small steps to check systems in Spain provide us with confidence that ExoMars will achieve what it was designed to do.”

During testing, the ExoFiT team will assess Charlie’s individual systems including the WISDOM (Water Ice Subsurface Deposit Observation on Mars) ground penetrating radar, CLUPI (Close-Up Imager), the Panoramic Camera (PanCam) mast imager which provides 3D maps of the area around the rover, and the coring drill to take below ground samples identified by WISDOM.