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Before sending a robot walker planet to explore the landscape of Mars or Venus, we must test it here on Earth. Two of these robotic platforms being developed for future missions are being tested in European Space Agency facilities: one that rolls and one that skips.
Rotation is being prepared for the Red Planet as part of the ESA program Program March 2020. We have just completed a week of testing in the Spanish desert, one of the many analogue programs used by Mars. It looks good. The gravity is a little different, of course, and there is a little more atmosphere, but it is close enough to test some things.
The team controlling Charlie, which is what they called the prototype, was doing it hundreds of miles from the UK – it was not really an interplanetary distance, but they of course thought to simulate the delay that the operators would meet if the rover was actually on Mars. There would also be many more instruments on board.
Exploration and navigation were still entirely done using the information gathered by the rover using radar and cameras, and the rover exercise was also involved. It rained a day, which is extremely unlikely on Mars, but operators have presumably claimed that it was a dust storm and rolled with it.
Another Earth analog test is scheduled for February in the Atacama Desert in Chile. To learn more about the ExoMars rover and the Mars 2020 mission, click here.
The other robot that ESA released this week does not belong to it but was developed by ETH Zurich: the SpaceBok – you know, like springbok. Researchers believe that moving around like a well-known ungulate could be a good way to get around on other planets.
It's good to ride on stable wheels, of course, but it's not helpful if you want to go to the bottom of a rock or go down a ravine to discover an interesting mineral deposit. SpaceBok is supposed to be a very stable skipping machine that can cross rough terrain or walk with a normal quadruped gait as needed (quite normal for robots).
"This is not particularly useful on Earth," admits Elias Hampp, a member of the SpaceBok team, but "it could reach a height of four meters on the moon.This would allow a fast and efficient way of To go from the front. "
He was doing tests in ESA's "Mars Yard Sandbox", a small enclosure full of soil and Mars-type rocks. The team is looking to improve the range with better vision – the better it will be able to see where it will land and the better SpaceBok will perform this landing.
Interplanetary missions are very popular now, and we may soon see private trips to the Moon and Mars. So, even if NASA or ESA do not decide to introduce SpaceBok (or such a creative robot) into the solar system, a generous sponsor may do so.
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