A giant sandpit has been built in Stevenage, Hertfordshire (30 miles north of central London), to mimic the surface of Mars.
The indoor terrain, about the size of a basketball court, will be used to test systems on the rover that Europe and Russia will send to the Red Planet in 2018.
It measures 98ft by 43ft and contains more than 300 tonnes of sand.
The walls, doors and all interior surfaces are painted a reddish-brown colour mimicking the background colour on Mars and there is a large mural of the Martian landscape on the walls.
These features ensure the rover navigation cameras see as realistic a Martian landscape as possible.
ExoMars, as it is known, will be a six-wheeled robot tasked with finding signs of past or present life.
The UK division of Europe's Airbus Defence and Space will assemble the rover from parts built across member states of the European Space Agency (Esa).
But it has the specific role also of developing the vehicle's autonomous navigation system.
Various prototypes already at Stevenage have been trying out the new "Marscape".
The lessons learned will be built into the eventual "flight" model - the actual vehicle that is sent to Mars.
The UK is building the rover's camera, PanCam, which will be superior to the camera onboard the US Curiosity rover.
"Curiosity can see a lot, but PanCam will be able to see a much larger region in its field of view," Prof Coates of the Mullard Space Science Laboratory explained.
"It can also zoom in and view sections in great detail with our high-resolution camera. With that we'll be able to narrow down where to drill to search for signs of life."
'Mars yard' to test European rover
By Jonathan Amos
Science correspondent
BBC News
27 March 2014
Explorer? British Business Secretary Vince Cable stands with the 'Bridget' rover on the Mars Yard at Airbus Defence and Space in Stevenage. The Mars Yard provides a test bed area for prototype rover vehicles that may be used to obtain data from the surface of Mars
Airbus has built a giant sand pit in Stevenage to mimic the surface of Mars.
The indoor terrain, about the size of a basketball court, will be used to test systems on the rover that Europe will send to the Red Planet in 2018.
ExoMars, as it is known, will be a six-wheeled robot tasked with finding signs of past or present life.
The UK division of Europe's Airbus Defence and Space will assemble the rover from parts built across member states of the European Space Agency (Esa).
But it has the specific role also of developing the vehicle's autonomous navigation system.
The great distance between Earth and Mars (an average of 140 million miles) means the robot cannot be controlled in real time; commands take tens of minutes to cross the space between the planets.
Instead, ExoMars will be given a destination to reach, and its onboard cameras and computer will then work out the most appropriate route, avoiding large boulders and potential fissures in the ground.
Euro-Russian mission to Mars
ExoMars rover set for launch in May 2018
Proton rocket will send it on its way
Russians also building landing system
Touchdown should occur in January 2019
Rover will look for biosignatures on Mars
Initial mission duration will be 218 Mars days
The new "Mars yard" is being used to develop the necessary algorithms.
"We need to verify the performance, to check that the algorithms and the processes that we're using will actually work - will be fit for purpose to deal with the conditions and obstacles we expect to find on Mars," said Dr Ralph Cordey from Airbus.
The sand pit will play a critical role also in testing the rover's drive systems.
Like previous vehicles sent to the Red Planet, ExoMars will be based on a free-moving, rocker-bogie suspension that allows it to climb over small rocks.
This equipment will be provided by robotics experts at MacDonald Dettwiler and Associates in Canada (Canada is a co-operating member state of Esa).
Various prototypes already at Stevenage have been trying out the new "Marscape".
The lessons learned will be built into the eventual "flight" model - the actual vehicle that is sent to Mars.
This itself will never see the Mars yard. It will be assembled in a new "cleanroom" at the Airbus factory to ensure it is kept spotless, and free from any Earthly contamination that could confuse its instruments when they go hunting "biosignatures" on Mars.
Once Airbus has assembled the flight model, it will be sent to Thales Alenia Space in Turin, Italy, where its payload of scientific instruments will be added.
The key UK science contribution is the PanCam imaging system developed by a team under the leadership of Prof Andrew Coates at the Mullard Space Science Laboratory at University College London (UCL).
The current US rover, Curiosity, has wowed us with its pictures from Gale Crater. ExoMars hopes to do the same.
Business Secretary Vince Cable MP (L) said space had a big inspiration factor
"Curiosity can see a lot, but PanCam will be able to see a much larger region in its field of view," Prof Coates explained.
"It can also zoom in and view sections in great detail with our high-resolution camera. With that we'll be able to narrow down where to drill to search for signs of life."
Precisely where on the Red Planet ExoMars will go has yet to be decided.
The project is holding its first landing-site selection meeting this week in Madrid, Spain, but it will be 2017 before a final choice is made.
Another outstanding matter is ExoMars' budget. Esa has capped the project at 1.2bn euros. This sum covers both an atmospheric-research and telecommunications satellite as well as the rover itself.
Esa member states have yet to commit all of the money that will be needed, but the agency's science director, Alvaro Gimenez, said the gap - of roughly 165m euros - should be closed very soon.
"Yes, there is a gap. It's less than 15%, but we need to close it, and the sooner the better, and we expect to do that before the end of the year," he predicted.
The Mars Yard was officially opened by Business Secretary Vince Cable. He said projects such as ExoMars fitted with the government's campaign to get more young people pursuing technical subjects at university.
"We are massively undersupplied in the UK with STEM graduates, and I think the excitement generated by space as an industry provides a lot of energy behind that campaign," he told reporters.
Esa has just published its "longlist" of potential destinations for ExoMars
Rover prototypes are already being put through their paces in the Mars yard at Stevenage
BBC News - 'Mars yard' to test European rover
The indoor terrain, about the size of a basketball court, will be used to test systems on the rover that Europe and Russia will send to the Red Planet in 2018.
It measures 98ft by 43ft and contains more than 300 tonnes of sand.
The walls, doors and all interior surfaces are painted a reddish-brown colour mimicking the background colour on Mars and there is a large mural of the Martian landscape on the walls.
These features ensure the rover navigation cameras see as realistic a Martian landscape as possible.
ExoMars, as it is known, will be a six-wheeled robot tasked with finding signs of past or present life.
The UK division of Europe's Airbus Defence and Space will assemble the rover from parts built across member states of the European Space Agency (Esa).
But it has the specific role also of developing the vehicle's autonomous navigation system.
Various prototypes already at Stevenage have been trying out the new "Marscape".
The lessons learned will be built into the eventual "flight" model - the actual vehicle that is sent to Mars.
The UK is building the rover's camera, PanCam, which will be superior to the camera onboard the US Curiosity rover.
"Curiosity can see a lot, but PanCam will be able to see a much larger region in its field of view," Prof Coates of the Mullard Space Science Laboratory explained.
"It can also zoom in and view sections in great detail with our high-resolution camera. With that we'll be able to narrow down where to drill to search for signs of life."
'Mars yard' to test European rover
By Jonathan Amos
Science correspondent
BBC News
27 March 2014
Explorer? British Business Secretary Vince Cable stands with the 'Bridget' rover on the Mars Yard at Airbus Defence and Space in Stevenage. The Mars Yard provides a test bed area for prototype rover vehicles that may be used to obtain data from the surface of Mars
Airbus has built a giant sand pit in Stevenage to mimic the surface of Mars.
The indoor terrain, about the size of a basketball court, will be used to test systems on the rover that Europe will send to the Red Planet in 2018.
ExoMars, as it is known, will be a six-wheeled robot tasked with finding signs of past or present life.
The UK division of Europe's Airbus Defence and Space will assemble the rover from parts built across member states of the European Space Agency (Esa).
But it has the specific role also of developing the vehicle's autonomous navigation system.
The great distance between Earth and Mars (an average of 140 million miles) means the robot cannot be controlled in real time; commands take tens of minutes to cross the space between the planets.
Instead, ExoMars will be given a destination to reach, and its onboard cameras and computer will then work out the most appropriate route, avoiding large boulders and potential fissures in the ground.
Euro-Russian mission to Mars
ExoMars rover set for launch in May 2018
Proton rocket will send it on its way
Russians also building landing system
Touchdown should occur in January 2019
Rover will look for biosignatures on Mars
Initial mission duration will be 218 Mars days
The new "Mars yard" is being used to develop the necessary algorithms.
"We need to verify the performance, to check that the algorithms and the processes that we're using will actually work - will be fit for purpose to deal with the conditions and obstacles we expect to find on Mars," said Dr Ralph Cordey from Airbus.
The sand pit will play a critical role also in testing the rover's drive systems.
Like previous vehicles sent to the Red Planet, ExoMars will be based on a free-moving, rocker-bogie suspension that allows it to climb over small rocks.
This equipment will be provided by robotics experts at MacDonald Dettwiler and Associates in Canada (Canada is a co-operating member state of Esa).
Various prototypes already at Stevenage have been trying out the new "Marscape".
The lessons learned will be built into the eventual "flight" model - the actual vehicle that is sent to Mars.
This itself will never see the Mars yard. It will be assembled in a new "cleanroom" at the Airbus factory to ensure it is kept spotless, and free from any Earthly contamination that could confuse its instruments when they go hunting "biosignatures" on Mars.
Once Airbus has assembled the flight model, it will be sent to Thales Alenia Space in Turin, Italy, where its payload of scientific instruments will be added.
The key UK science contribution is the PanCam imaging system developed by a team under the leadership of Prof Andrew Coates at the Mullard Space Science Laboratory at University College London (UCL).
The current US rover, Curiosity, has wowed us with its pictures from Gale Crater. ExoMars hopes to do the same.
Business Secretary Vince Cable MP (L) said space had a big inspiration factor
"Curiosity can see a lot, but PanCam will be able to see a much larger region in its field of view," Prof Coates explained.
"It can also zoom in and view sections in great detail with our high-resolution camera. With that we'll be able to narrow down where to drill to search for signs of life."
Precisely where on the Red Planet ExoMars will go has yet to be decided.
The project is holding its first landing-site selection meeting this week in Madrid, Spain, but it will be 2017 before a final choice is made.
Another outstanding matter is ExoMars' budget. Esa has capped the project at 1.2bn euros. This sum covers both an atmospheric-research and telecommunications satellite as well as the rover itself.
Esa member states have yet to commit all of the money that will be needed, but the agency's science director, Alvaro Gimenez, said the gap - of roughly 165m euros - should be closed very soon.
"Yes, there is a gap. It's less than 15%, but we need to close it, and the sooner the better, and we expect to do that before the end of the year," he predicted.
The Mars Yard was officially opened by Business Secretary Vince Cable. He said projects such as ExoMars fitted with the government's campaign to get more young people pursuing technical subjects at university.
"We are massively undersupplied in the UK with STEM graduates, and I think the excitement generated by space as an industry provides a lot of energy behind that campaign," he told reporters.
THE MARS YARD
The new Airbus Defence Space 'Mars Yard' is located in Stevenage, Hertfordshire.
It will be used to test the next generation of Mars rovers.
It measures 98ft by 43ft and contains more than 300tonnes of sand.
The walls, doors, and all interior surfaces are painted a reddish-brown colour mimicking the background colour on Mars and there is a large mural of the Martian landscape on the walls.
These features ensure the rover navigation cameras see as realistic a Martian landscape as possible.
Esa has just published its "longlist" of potential destinations for ExoMars
Rover prototypes are already being put through their paces in the Mars yard at Stevenage
BBC News - 'Mars yard' to test European rover
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