The Rosalind Franklin rover will be on a mission to find life on the Red Planet when it arrives in June 2023.
It is the first to carry a drill long enough to explore molecules up to two metres below the surface, where they would be protected from the harsh radiation on the planet’s surface.
Dr Christian Schröder is one of five Guest Investigators who will join a panel of scientists from of different disciplines from Europe, Russia and Canada.
They will play a leading role in commanding the rover once it lands at the selected site of Oxia Planum on Mars.
The rover will spend a minimum of 211 ‘sols’ (Martian days), equivalent to 230 Earth days, searching for organic carbon molecules that could tell us whether there was ever life on Mars.
Schröder was previously part of the team operating Nasa’s twin Mars exploration rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, from 2003 to 2019.
The mission established the past presence of liquid water on the Martian surface – the most...