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\nOne small step for a robot: getting a robotic rover off its lander will be the next most nerve-wracking moment for Europe\u2019s 2018 ExoMars mission<\/a> after landing.\n<\/p>\n \nThis week a simulation stretching between France and the Netherlands will let ESA\u2019s Planetary Robotics Laboratory<\/a> test such an \u2018egress\u2019 scenario.\n<\/p>\n \nA half-scale model resembling the ExoMars lander with a rover prototype resting upon it will sit somewhere in the sprawling outdoor Mars Yard in the Toulouse site of France\u2019s CNES space agency, while its operators will be working from ESA\u2019s ESTEC technical centre in Noordwijk, the Netherlands.\n<\/p>\n \nThey will only be around a thousand kilometres away, rather than the upwards of 50 million km for the actual mission, but the ESTEC team \u2013 from ESA, Thales Alenia Space and Altec \u2013 will be receiving only limited information to guide them: still images and telemetry from the rover and lander.\n<\/p>\n \nThe biggest decision of all will be which direction to drive \u2013 forwards or backwards. The lander has two sets of tracks for the rover to descend in case one side is blocked by the Mars-like terrain.\n<\/p>\n \nThe ESTEC people will have no knowledge of the lander\u2019s precise placing within the sandy, boulder-littered 80 x 50 m Mars Yard in Toulouse.\n<\/p>\n \nThe aim is to perform up to four separate egress simulations over the course of Wednesday and Thursday, although the weather is an uncertainty for the outdoor Mars Yard. Follow the test campaign at @ESA_Tech on Twitter with the hashtag \u2018#RoverEgress\u2019.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \t\t\t\t\t \nOne small step for a robot: getting a robotic rover off its lander will be the next most nerve-wracking moment for Europe\u2019s 2018 ExoMars mission<\/a> after landing.\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n