The search for life on Mars begins with ‘Charlie’ in Spain’s Almería desert
The European Space Agency and Airbus are testing a prototype of the rover in Tabernas — controlled from Turin — that they plan to send to the Martian surface in 2028
In a landscape reminiscent of Sergio Leone's westerns, engineers and scientists from the European Space Agency (ESA) and Airbus have transported a futuristic machine to Spain's Almería desert. Before the sun had fully risen, they placed the prototype rover, named Charlie, on a small cart and drove it through the terrain, which alternated between fine dusty soil, rocky scree, and salt-encrusted ground.
The team aimed to test how the machine would perform in an environment resembling Mars as closely as possible. This is a crucial step towards the ultimate goal of the ExoMars mission, which seeks to land the first European rover on the Martian surface by 2030, after a one-year space journey, and drill into the ground to search for evidence of past or present life on the red planet. In the dry Almería scrub, Charlie seems to have impressed the scientists involved in the mission.
Written by urgent.news from El Pais English's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
