The European Space Agency’s Rosalind Franklin Rover ground test model sits on a test stand. The black rectangular unit near the front of the rover contains a deep digging system.
Thales Alenia Space
This story is part of Welcome to MarsOur Explorations of the Red Planet series.
What is under it? The European Space Agency’s Rosalind Franklin Mars rover can answer this question in depth. The European Space Agency has successfully tested an impressive drilling system that it wants to deploy to the Red Planet. The system is much deeper than any previous rover exercise.
The Rosalind Franklin Rover Heads to the Red Planet for ExoMars 2022…a sim that stays on land and is used to test key rover technologies, including the drilling system.
“The long-awaited success of ExoMars training (…) will be its first exploration of Mars,” David Parker, director of human and robotic exploration at the European Space Agency, said in a statement on Wednesday.
The deepest well on Mars is about 2.8 inches (7 cm). The Rover ESA is designed to drill up to 6.5 feet (2 meters), take a small sample of soil and return it to the onboard laboratory for analysis.
Known as a ground test model, ESA’s Rover Twin had the opportunity to drive a drill through a test rig filled with layers of rock and soil. The European Space Agency (ESA) has released a video showing an exercise in progress. So far, ground-test models have shown that it can reach 5.6 feet (1.7 meters) above the ground.
The idea is to reach a sample whose surface is not exposed to radiation. “Reliably obtaining deep samples is fundamental to achieving the main scientific objective of ExoMars: studying the chemical composition (and potential signs of life) of soils that have not been exposed to harmful ionizing radiation.” Said Jorge Fago, ExoMars project scientist.
ESA’s Rosalind Franklin Rover Ground Test Model is like a liner that stays on the ground. Let’s take a closer look at where drilling meets the ground.
Thales Alenia Space
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ExoMars is a joint project of the European Space Agency and the Russian space agency Roscosmos. Rosalind Franklin’s launch has been pushed back from 2020 to 2022 to address hardware and software issues and deal with the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Rover test training is one of the key steps in preparing for a mission to Mars. This gives the rover team the ability to fix the problem and make sure the system is working as expected.
March can be tumultuous- As discovered by NASA’s InSight probe When an attempt to dig a hole in the ground fails, the ExoMars team will do everything they can to meet the challenge of digging Rosalind, who is digging deeper than ever before.
ESA’s Mars rover digs deeper into the Red Planet than any other rover
source link ESA’s Mars rover digs deeper into the Red Planet than any other rover
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