The European Space Agency's mission to search for life on Mars has reached an important milestone with its six-wheeled surface rover prototype ready for its "shake and bake.
Built by Airbus Defense and Space just north of London in Stevenage, Britain's unlikely "Space City," the so-called Structural Thermal Model is being packed off to Toulouse, France, for a raft of tests to ensure the real ExoMars rover handles anything the red planet can throw at it.
If the 2020 mission goes to plan it would be Europe's first rover on Mars, following several successful NASA landings.
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