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A planetary rover that could end up being used to build habitats on the Moon or explore the surface of Mars has been put through its paces at a quarry in Milton Keynes.
The Sample Fetch Rover (SFR), affectionately called Anon, was originally built to collect sample tubes left on Mars by another rover called Perseverance, which landed on the red planet last February.
However, Anon was let go from the mission after NASA and the European Space Agency announced Perseverance was already collecting samples on its own.
Despite this, engineers at the aerospace company Airbus, who have been working on the SFR since 2018, have continued to develop and test the machine.
Part of that development process includes quarry testing, which provides a unique landscape to test all the rover’s systems simultaneously for the first time.
“Even though the mission may have faded away, the core technology is still ready and able to go, and this is the kind of the final step in proving that it works,” said Airbus’s project manager, Ben Dobke
“With the Artemis programme happening at the end of the decade, the focus has started shifting towards the moon.
“So any rovers or autonomous vehicles on the Moon, this software can certainly be applied to that in the future.”
The Artemis mission’s long-term goal is to set up a permanent base camp on the Moon and facilitate human missions to Mars.
What will engineers need to test on the rover?
In order for Anon to be used in future Moon programmes, engineers need to consider temperatures on the lunar surface and make sure the rover’s key systems will work in the lack of atmosphere.
They will also have to make sure the SFR can be powered up after spending 14 nights essentially in sleep mode because of the cold…
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Source : skynews
