Question of 'is there's life on mars' to be answered – by a robot from stevenage

LAB IN THE HERTFORDSHIRE TOWN BUILT BY AEROSPACE FIRM AIRBUS HAS BEEN BUILT TO BE AN EXACT REPLICA OF WHAT THE RED PLANET IS BELIEVED TO BE LIKE - AND THEY'RE TRAINING A ROBOT THERE

SIAN HEWITT 15:39, 03 Jun 2025 Boffins are hoping the answers to whether there’s life on Mars might be found in Stevenage. They’re training a Mars rover, which will be sent into space to

collect evidence of possible life there, in the sleepy commuter town in Herts. The lab, which has been built by aerospace firm Airbus, has been made up to be an exact replica of what the Red

Planet is believed to be like. There is zero moisture allowed in the room, 300 tonnes of orange sand, dimmed lighting and rocks - making it the perfect practice place for the robot before

it’s sent into space. The ‘Mars Yard’ is being used to try and perfect landing to allow the super robot - named Rosalind Franklin after the British molecular scientist - to gather as much

intelligence as possible on the mysterious planet. Rosalind is not set to depart the UK for space until 2028 as part of the European Space Agency’s ExoMars mission, and won’t be able to land

until 2030 as conditions need to be “perfect”. Article continues below Yvonne Pickering, robot engineer at the site, said: “One of the tricky parts of launching to Mars is that you only

have specific times that you can actually launch. “Earth and Mars are in different orbits. If you launch at the wrong time, Mars could be sort of the other side of the sun, which wouldn’t

help. “The launch window opens every 26 months and lasts for 22 days.” From launch, the journey will take nine months to reach the planet and a further nine months to wait for an optimal

landing opportunity. The robot will then dig into the ground to look for organic matter to analyse the samples and work out if there is life on mars. Article continues below Ms Pickering

said: “The point of the mission is that we are going to look for signs of life. Mars doesn’t have an atmosphere like Earth does, or a magnetic field, so it doesn’t get the same protection

that Earth does. “Radiation hits the surface of Mars and it will destroy everything on the top layers. “So we are going to have to drill down into roughly around two meters, which is where

we think that we may still be able to find some organic matter that hasn’t been destroyed.”