The European Space Agency’s ExoMars rover has arrived in France for final tests before being prepared for its mission next year.
Named Rosalind Franklin after the English chemist, the rover is designed to determine whether there has ever been life on Mars. It will also better understand the history of water on the red planet.
The rover took 18 months to build at the Airbus aerospace site in Stevenage, UK, and will now spend four months of testing at the company’s site in Toulouse, France, to make sure it will work in the harsh Martian conditions
Temperatures dropto –120C at night, and despite its insulation the rover’s internal temperature will drop to –60C.
If all goes well, the rover will then be attached to the cruise-and-descent stage of the spacecraft and shipped to the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan for launch in July 2020.
Another team is working to verify the parachute system that will place the rover safely on Mars.
The UK is the second largest contributor to the ExoMars mission after Italy, and so won the right to build and name the rover.
