Mission-Ready: Airbus Tests Mars Rover Models In Quarry Near London
14th Oct 2024
European aerospace corporation Airbus recently conducted tests of its Mars Sample Fetch and ExoMars rovers, showing for the first time a new robotic arm. Since the launch of both of these Mars rover models has been delayed, for now they are demonstrating their ability to autonomously drive and collect samples in a quarry near Leighton Buzzard, Bedfordshire, in the UK.
Meet Codi – Mars Sample Fetch Rover With New Robotic Hand

Mars Sample Fetch Rover demonstration model, named Codi, took tests in fully autonomous mode, making independent decisions throughout. The four-wheeled rover received coordinates of “Mars samples” from a simulated ground control station. Using its onboard maps and an autonomous navigation system, which includes a pair of stereo cameras, Codi navigated to the designated samples. Rover used an innovative robotic arm to collect them.
Airbus has already tested the rover twice in the same quarry, but previously it did not have to pick the samples, only to autonomously move across the simulated Martian surface.
This year’s test campaign was considered a success. Codi moves quite slowly, with the speed of about 7 centimetres per second, while also making frequent stops to analyse the surroundings, and choosing the safest and most efficient route. The rover passed the test successfully and managed to cover 300 metres on its own without any intervention.

The Sample Fetch Rover has been in development since 2018 and was intended to travel to Mars in 2026 to pick samples collected by NASA’s Perseverance rover. However, in 2022, due to budget cuts, NASA refused from the fetch rover and is going to use Perseverance instead. The European Space Agency (ESA) decided to continue the development of the rover, hoping to use it in a future mission, perhaps on the moon.
Charlie Also Passed Tests Successfully

The improved ExoMars rover’s replica named Charlie also took part in recent tests in a simulated Mars surface near London.
ExoMars rover is named after an astrobiology programme of the European Space Agency (ESA) aiming to search for signs of past life on Mars.
The creation of this six-wheel-rover started in 2001 in cooperation with Russia’s space agency Roscosmos. It was supposed to launch on Russia’s Proton rocket during the launch window starting on 20 September 2022, and scheduled to land on Mars on 10 June 2023. However, Russian full-scale invasion of Ukraine made cooperation with Roscosmos impossible and the mission was postponed.
The flight model of the rover, named Rosalind Franklin, is now in Turin, Italy, waiting for a new opportunity to explore the Red Planet.
Meanwhile, its demonstration prototype, Charlie, is undergoing tests in a quarry in the UK. Surprisingly, this rover moves even more slowly than Codi, with the speed of 1 cm per second. That is considered the main problem the engineers are now trying to solve. Therefore, a new navigation system that could speed up the missions was installed and successfully tested. The new algorithm allows Charlie to use its localisation cameras to monitor rocks along its path instead of stopping every few metres to analyse the hazards.
Airbus and ESA plan to implement the new system in the Rosalind Franklin rover, enabling it to travel faster and explore more terrain once it reaches Mars in 2028.
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