The Anon rover was built for Mars, but its interplanetary mission is derailed. The car-sized robot is being tested in a mine near London in hopes that one day it will go to the moon instead.
For the past two weeks, Airbus has been testing its sample rover in a mine near Milton Keynes in England, which simulates an exotic environment well. The development team hopes that the rover will finally be able to explore and work on the lunar surface, The Guardian the.
The Mars Sample Fetch Rover, also known as the Anon, was built by the European airline Airbus and is designed to collect leftover tube samples from NASA’s vehicle of perseverance, which has been touring the Red Planet since February 2021. Earlier this year, NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) announced Change of plans for him Return of the Mars champion A mission that seeks to return champions to Earth in the next decade. Instead of using a sample holder, NASA wants to constantly transport the test tube to a lander that will wait nearby. The space agency also wants to send two Ingenuity helicopters to Jezero Crater to collect pipe samples and send them around the spacecraft.
A sudden change of plans cost European explorers tickets to Mars. However, developer Anon, who has been working on the rover for the past four years, hasn’t given up on this little guy and continues to test the rover’s system. Ben Dubke, Airbus project manager, told the Guardian: “Even though the mission may have vanished, the underlying technology is still ready and able to take off, and this is the last step in proving it works.”
Instead of Mars, Anon could head to the lunar surface as part of NASA Artemide program, which seeks a continuous and sustained presence in the lunar environment. The probes will not collect samples from the tubes on the Moon, but they could be used for other purposes, such as helping build lunar habitats.
The rover will need some adjustments in the lunar missions, otherwise it will not withstand the low temperatures and lack of atmosphere. Anon also needed to be modified so that he could recover from a long night on the moon, which lasted 14 days, thus placing him in complete darkness for a long time, according to The Guardian. Anon doesn’t have a ticket to the moon yet, but its developers want to be prepared if the opportunity arises.
Anon is the second European spacecraft on Mars to miss the opportunity to visit the Red Planet. The European Space Agency’s ExoMars spacecraft was supposed to be launched this year, but The space agency suspends the joint mission With the Russian space agency Roscosmos after the invasion of Ukraine. Both explorers are currently awaiting their new destiny, but it looks like both are ready for space exploration.
still: The Perseverance Rover has finally gotten its first Martian rock champion, this time for real
