The first European rover designed to explore the surface of Mars will be delivered with a landing system built in the UK.
Airbus UK won the £150m project to complete the system and will design the mechanical, thermal and propulsion systems necessary for the landing platform to ensure a safe touchdown for the rover in 2030.
The platform is being produced for the European Space Agency’s ExoMars mission, which was restarted last year after being suspended in 2022 due to the war in Ukraine. A lander developed by the Russian space agency Roscosmos named Kazachok (‘little Cossack’) was originally going to deliver the Rosalind Franklin rover, but all Russian involvement in the project ended once the war began.
As well as the landing platform, the rover itself was built by Airbus Defence and Space between 2018 and 2019 but has been awaiting a launch date ever since.
The new contract is being directly funded by the government through the UK Space Agency, and will sustain around 200 high-skilled...