New Mars rover set for 2013 launch

A British-made rover nicknamed Bridget is on target for a 2013 launch to Mars.

Confirmation of the European Space Agency's support for the UK team behind the golf-cart sized craft came with a contract worth £2.56 million.

The award, made to the Stevenage-based British arm of the European space manufacturing company EADS Astrium, will pay for the next stage of the rover's development. Bridget will be part of Europe's ExoMars mission.

The rover will be dropped on to the planet from an orbiting mothership. It is designed to drill into rocks and carry instruments that can look for signs of past or present life.

Bridget has already been put through its paces on a volcanic desert on the Spanish island of Tenerife, chosen because it resembles the surface of Mars.

On Mars the rover will have to navigate itself across inhospitable terrain strewn with rocks and sand dunes.

Dr Mike Healy, director of Earth observation, navigation and science at Astrium UK, said: "We welcome the reaffirmation of the UK's support ... for the ExoMars mission and the commitment of Europe to return to Mars. The latest decision now enables a clear focus for the development of the project up to its planned launch in 2013. We have a mission that promises to deliver world-class science, provided through its suite of cutting-edge analytical instruments."

Bridget will give British scientists a second chance after the Beagle 2 disaster of 2003. The British-made lander, part of the European Mars Express mission, vanished on Christmas Day as it prepared to descend to the planet's surface. Like the new rover, it had been equipped to search for signs of life.

Bridget will follow up the work conducted by the American space agency Nasa's rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, which have gathered geological data and looked for evidence of water on Mars. The European machine will take samples from beneath the Martian surface and analyse them for fossilised microbes and chemical biomarkers of life.

British scientists and engineers have also received new investment of almost £2 million from the Science and Technology Facilities Research Council (STFC) for ongoing research and technology development dedicated to ExoMars.

https://www.astrium.eads.net/login_form?came_from=http%253A//www.astrium.eads.net/company/eads-astrium&retry=&disable_cookie_login__=1(EADS Astrium)

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