British engineers design a new Mars rover

British engineers will design a robot capable of recovering rock samples from Mars so that they can be sent to Earth for study.

The European Space Agency contracts with the industry to specify the technology needed for a complex joint venture with the United States.

The aerospace giant Airbus will expand the concept of "fetch rover" surface at its Stevenage center in North London.

Esa and the US Space Agency (NASA) plan to send equipment back samples to the Red Planet in 2026.

"This will be a relatively small rover – about 130kg, but the requirements are very demanding "said Ben Boyes who will lead the Airbus feasibility team.

"The vehicle will have to cover great distances using a high degree of autonomy, planning its own path day after day," he told BBC News.

Esa and NASA signed a letter of intent in April pledging to bring back pieces of rock and Martian land to Earth by the end of the next decade.

It will be a daring undertaking that will be done in stages and take several years to complete

How does the plan unfold?

• NASA will send a robot to Mars in 2020. This will fetch materials, drilling them and picking them up from the surface and caching them in containers. These will be deposited at various drop-off points. There could be more than 30 of these pen-sized tubes waiting to be picked up.
• In 2026, the recovery mission will be launched. The Americans will land on Mars an "ascension vehicle" (essentially a rocket) with the European Rover. They move to find and collect the cartridges, bringing them back to the rocket.
• In about 150 days, space agencies want containers to be removed from Mars by the vehicle. He will meet with a European orbiter who will take over the samples and transport them to Earth. A descent capsule will bring down the precious cargo somewhere in the United States.
• This "architecture" is still under development and the technologies must be demonstrated feasible. Thus, the concepts will probably evolve, as well as the schedule of the different stages. Agencies could stretch the hours to allocate what will be a considerable financial cost.

Why is it important?

Many satellites have been sent to study Mars from above, and seven undercarriages have descended to the present to screen its surface materials. But scientists say some of the biggest issues on the planet – as if it has already hosted life – can only be truly solved if the soil and rock are brought to Earth.

No miniaturization can give the Martian landers the capabilities of the most modern analytical tools currently available in research laboratories.

Mars Sample Return is the next big thing in planetary science.

Read more about the fetch rover

Airbus to Stevenage was selected for the € 4.45m (£ 3.90m) feasibility project as it is already building the ExoMars rover of Esa, which will go to the red planet -situ science, from 2021.

The requirements for the fetch rover will be very different, however.

Unlike the 220 kg ExoMars robot, the new vehicle will not feature a series of research instruments; his only job will be to recover the cache canisters.

"One of the new technologies we want for the mobile is to be able to visually detect the cartridges remotely, drive them and pick them up automatically," Boyes said.

"A robot arm reaches out and lifts them into a shop on the front of the mobile."

What is the next phase?

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in California is working with the US industry to specify its equipment. Esa issues contracts to European industry for its own mission elements.

As is the normal practice of Esa, parallel feasibility studies are conducted in different companies to find the best hardware solutions.

The French-Italian company Thales Alenia Space (TAS) will also examine some aspects of the robot's design. Similarly, TAS and Airbus will examine the possibilities of the terrestrial orbiter

The goal is to have concepts and costs that European space ministers can endorse when it 's time to do it. they will meet for their big council meeting at the end of 2019.

is gasoline; it takes time to build and test space technology, and the fetch rover must be delivered to the JPL to be integrated with the lift vehicle and landing gear in early 2025 – if the launch goal of 2026 Must be Achieved

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Once the recovery van has returned the sample cartridges to the ascent vehicle, it will retreat to a safe distance to film the ascent.

"It's going to be very exciting – to record the first rocket launch on Mars, it's nice at the end of the program," Boyes said. Robotic exploration at Esa. He told the BBC News: "It has been a long time since we are interested in Mars Sample Return, but it is really the first time that we have been working systematically with the Nasa, and fingers crossed for it to work 19659007] "I must say that science is really fantastic. Someone showed me what they could do with 50-year-old Apollo samples brought back from the moon. Thus, returned samples from Mars will be used in 50 years. "

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