Airbus recreates extreme Mars conditions to test ExoMars rover

Airbus engineers will recreate the shocks of landing on Mars to test a new rover before its mission to search for life on the Red Planet.

A representative model of the ExoMars rover will undergo a “demanding” test campaign in Toulouse, France, to ensure it can survive launch, landing and the planet’s harsh environment. The ExoMars project will be a joint mission between Russia and the European Space Agency (ESA).

The rover will land on Mars in 2021 and will be the first of its kind to drill down to 2m below the surface, looking for evidence of buried life.

A structural and thermal model recently transferred from Airbus Defence and Space in Stevenage, Hertfordshire.

This week, operators will shake it on a vibration table to ensure it can survive the “intense juddering” of lift-off. The tests will also simulate the shock of entering the planet’s atmosphere at high speed, parachutes opening and then touchdown on the surface.

Two months of thermal tests will follow in low-pressure, carbon dioxide-rich atmospheric conditions, qualifying the rover for -120^oC cold and large daily temperature variations.

In August, the rover model will be placed in a replica descent module at Moscow-based aerospace company NPO Lavochkin, where it will again be subjected to vibration, shock and thermal tests.

Another model will undergo an eight-month campaign focusing on its movement and navigation over a variety of ground types.

The testing schedule is “essential preparation that brings us a step closer to roving on the Red Planet,” said Pietro Baglioni, ESA ExoMars rover team leader.

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