 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Industry Asked To Design ESA Mars Rover and Payload
Paris - Jul 24, 2003 Is there life on other worlds or is planet Earth the only place in our Solar System where living organisms have evolved? ESA is inviting European and Canadian industry to participate in its exciting ExoMars mission in order to provide an answer to this age-old question. On 9 July, the Aurora Programme Office issued an Invitation to Tender (ITT) for companies wishing to submit proposals for the detailed design of the ExoMars rover and its Pasteur payload of scientific instruments. The deadline for submission of proposals is 13 October 2003, after which two companies will be selected to conduct the one-year Phase A design studies. The ExoMars mission includes an orbiter and a descent module that will land a large (200 kg), high-mobility rover on the surface of Mars. After delivery of the lander/rover, the ExoMars orbiter will also operate as a data relay satellite between the Earth and the vehicle on the Martian surface. The primary objective of the ExoMars rover will be to search for signs of life, past or present, on the Red Planet. Additional measurements will be taken to identify potential surface hazards for future human missions, to determine the distribution of water on Mars and to measure the chemical composition of the surface rocks. The vehicle will be equipped with a comprehensive suite of scientific instruments - the Pasteur payload - that will include tools able to extract, handle and analyse samples of Martian soil. The instrument mass of this payload is anticipated to be around 40 kg. "ExoMars is a very ambitious mission and a key step in the development of the Aurora long-term plan to send a human expedition to Mars," said Bruno Gardini, Aurora Project Manager. "Not only will it include Europe's first planetary roving vehicle, but it will also be the first of its kind to carry an exobiology payload, a set of instruments specifically designed to search for life," he said. "Interplanetary spacecraft, and landing vehicles in particular, need to be very compact and efficient, with minimum mass and minimum power consumption," he added. "The scope of the present study is, therefore, to provide an integrated rover design, efficiently combining locomotion, scientific instruments and rover subsystems." ESA intends to launch ExoMars in 2009, as the first Flagship mission of the Aurora programme. The ExoMars Phase A studies will be financed by ESA's Aurora and ELIPS programmes. Community Email This Article Comment On This Article Related Links ExoMars call for ideas Aurora SpaceDaily Search SpaceDaily Subscribe To SpaceDaily Express Mars News and Information at MarsDaily.com Lunar Dreams and more
Spirit Heading To 'Home Plate'
Pasadena CA (JPL) Jan 09, 2006Last week Spirit completed robotic-arm work on "El Dorado." The rover used all three of its spectrometers plus the microscopic imager for readings over the New Year's weekend. |
|
|
| The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2006 - SpaceDaily.AFP and UPI Wire Stories are copyright Agence France-Presse and United Press International. ESA PortalReports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additionalcopyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement,agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by SpaceDaily on any Web page published or hosted by SpaceDaily. Privacy Statement |
