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Europe’s first rover to be sent to another planet is back on track to reach Mars, with the lander that will deposit it on the surface lined up to be built in the UK.
The Rosalind Franklin rover – named after the scientist who played a key role in the discovery of the structure of DNA – is part of ExoMars, a European Space Agency (Esa) mission to probe whether life once existed on the red planet, and features a drill to retrieve samples, up to 4bn years old, from two metres below the surface.
Initially a joint project with Roscosmos, the rover was expected to launch in 2022. However, the mission was suspended after the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
But rather than ditch the project, Esa reassessed it, securing more money and striking new agreements for other sources to deliver aspects that were previously to be provided by Russia.
Among them, Nasa will now supply the launcher for the rover, as well as a number of other elements including the rover’s radioisotope heater units (RHUs). Takeoff is expected in 2028 for arrival on Mars in 2030.
Now it has been announced that the rover’s landing platform will be built by Airbus at its site in Stevenage, Hertfordshire, as part of a £150m contract awarded by Esa and funded by the UK government through the UK Space Agency.
The business is no stranger to the mission: Airbus built the Rosalind Franklin rover itself. But, as Caroline Rodier, the project manager of the lander, noted, getting the rover on to the Martian surface is a challenge.
“Landing on Mars is not an easy task, and the schedule is very ambitious as well,” she said.
The idea is that the rover and landing platform will be contained within a capsule Rodier likens to a Kinder Egg, which also features a parachute and a heat shield.
On entering the Martian atmosphere, the first parachute is deployed to slow the capsule to subsonic speeds. Then that parachute, and the capsule itself, is jettisoned before a second parachute – attached to the lander – is engaged.
“And then eventually the platform itself, when it’s getting quite close [to] the soil, will effectively start firing its thruster quite hard in order to land,” said Rodier.
But this landing platform is complex to design: not least as it must be slowed to less than three metres a second before touchdown.
“When you land on Mars with this kind of system, with a platform and thrusters which are firing quite hard in order to break the speed and land safely, it means that you need a propulsion system with a big throughput,” Rodier said.
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“If you compare with what we’ve done elsewhere, which are typical spacecraft, other missions, they have a much smaller throughput. So there are challenges, because it is the first time that we are doing this kind of propulsion system.”
Rodier added the team are also working on legs for the lander as well as two symmetrical ramps that will be deployed once it has touched down, allowing the Rosalind Franklin rover to leave the platform via the least risky route.
Rodier added that the rover itself is currently undergoing various tweaks and upgrades now that the launch window has changed, including enhancements to its guidance and navigation control system.
Paul Bate, the 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.
“We’re proud to have funded this world-leading technology. The ripple effects of space exploration discoveries extend far beyond the realm of space exploration, driving progress and prosperity across multiple sectors in the UK, and inspiring technological advances to benefit us all.”
