Airbus will build a rover to bring rocks from Mars to Earth

In recent years, Mars has been the center of a large number of investigations and special projects, and surely scientists are looking forward to To have in their hands some of these reddish rocks. dusty that until now we could only see through images sent to our planet.

In April, we learned that NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) were involved in a project for this: collect samples of the red planet and transport them to Earth for the first time. And this week, the bold plan reached a milestone when ESA awarded Airbus a $ 5.3 million contract to design a concept vehicle capable of recovering Martian samples that had already been collected by the robot. March 2020.

The so-called "rover fetch" will be built by Airbus at its headquarters in Stevenage, England, north of London. The vehicle should be able to load the samples aboard an ascending ship that must go into orbit, before being transported to Earth in a separate spacecraft. If you find that difficult, you are right.

"A The flight to Mars is already being built by Airbus at Stevenage, and the enhancement of knowledge and experience will now be applied to the design of this new mission which aims to provide for the first time from equipment to Earth, said British Science Minister Sam Gyimah

A Long-Term Project

Assuming that the complex project progresses smoothly, the team behind the rover looks for the same. send in 2026. "It will be a relatively small mobile vehicle, The weight of the aircraft is about 130 kilos, but the requirements are very demanding," said Ben Boyes, team leader Airbus Feasibility Study, "The Vehicle Must Cover go long distances with a high degree of autonomy, planning your own path day after day. "

The technology is complex and is still developing, and for this reason the date could change. The team that is part of this project says that the March 2020 robot will drill and collect interesting soil samples on Mars, transfer them to small containers and place them at collection points.

Six years later, an ascension vehicle will land on Mars, with the search explorer, who will pick up the containers and return them to the ship of ascent. The ship will leave Mars and meet an orbiter, who will return to Earth with the samples. At least that's the plan.