![](\"http:\/\/www.esa.int\/var\/esa\/storage\/images\/esa_multimedia\/images\/2015\/11\/egress_test_rover_in_cnes_mars_yard\/15666722-1-eng-GB\/Egress_test_rover_in_CNES_Mars_Yard_small.jpg\")
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\nEvery journey begins with a single step \u2013 or in this case a downward trundle.\n<\/p>\n
\nThe \u2018egress\u2019 of Europe\u2019s ExoMars 2018 rover off its lander will be the second most stressful moment of the mission after Mars landing.\n<\/p>\n
\nSo to build up experience in the problem, a half-scale rover on a mock-up lander was placed in the outdoor 80 x 50 m \u2018Mars Yard\u2019 of France\u2019s CNES space agency for a two-day test on 28\u201329 October.\n<\/p>\n
\nIt was controlled remotely by a team at ESA\u2019s ESTEC technical centre, a thousand kilometres away in the Netherlands. Watch a timelapse video of the campaign<\/a> here.\n<\/p>\n \nThey were given no idea where in the sprawling Mars Yard the rover was located for each test scenario. The only information they had came from cameras and sensors in the rover and lander.\n<\/p>\n \nAdding to the difficulty, realtime remote control of the rover was out \u2013 the sheer distance to Mars will make it impractical in reality. Instead, they could receive telemetry at regular intervals then send back a to-do list of commands.\n<\/p>\n \nFor the purposes of testing, these communication passes came once every hour \u2013 in reality they would occur once or twice a day.\n<\/p>\n \nThe team on the ESTEC side came from ESA\u2019s Automation and Robotics section and ExoMars<\/a> project as well as from industrial partners Trasys Space Belgium, Thales Alenia Space Italy and Altec Italy. The testing was also tracked from ESA\u2019s ESOC control centre in Darmstadt, Germany.\n<\/p>\n \nFor each egress they worked to build up a detailed virtual model of the rover\u2019s surroundings, as well as stitching together a panorama from the various camera views.\n<\/p>\n \nThe lander has two sets of ramps down to the surface, so the team had to decide which way down was safer.\n<\/p>\n \nA total of five egress tests were performed: four ended in success and one in failure \u2013 the rover descended down at too steep an angle and began to topple off. In real life the mission would have ended there, but in this case it was safely caught by helping hands.\n<\/p>\n \nThe incident demonstrated the importance of simulations, which also allowed the testing of various software tools developed over years of research.\n<\/p>\n \nThe testing was organised by ESA\u2019s Planetary Robotics Laboratory<\/a> in cooperation with CNES and ESOC. The results are valuable for designing the actual ExoMars mission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \t\t\t\t\t \nEvery journey begins with a single step \u2013 or in this case a downward trundle.\n<\/p>\n \nThe \u2018egress\u2019 of Europe\u2019s ExoMars 2018 rover off its lander will be the second most stressful moment of the mission after Mars landing.\n<\/p>\n \nSo to build up experience in the problem, a half-scale rover on a mock-up lander was placed in the outdoor 80 x 50 m \u2018Mars Yard\u2019 of France\u2019s CNES space agency for a two-day test on 28\u201329 October.\n<\/p>\n \nIt was controlled remotely by a team at ESA\u2019s ESTEC technical centre, a thousand kilometres away in the Netherlands. Watch a timelapse video of the campaign<\/a> here.\n<\/p>\n \nThey were given no idea where in the sprawling Mars Yard the rover was located for each test scenario. The only information they had came from cameras and sensors in the rover and lander.\n<\/p>\n \nAdding to the difficulty, realtime remote control of the rover was out \u2013 the sheer distance to Mars will make it impractical in reality. Instead, they could receive telemetry at regular intervals then send back a to-do list of commands.\n<\/p>\n \nFor the purposes of testing, these communication passes came once every hour \u2013 in reality they would occur once or twice a day.\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n