Time-lapse rover testing

A sped-up view of ESA-CNES rover ‘egress’ testing that took place in one of Europe’s largest mock-Mars landscapes. Every journey begins with a single step – or in this case a downward trundle. The egress of Europe’s ExoMars 2018 rover off its lander will be the second most stressful moment of the mission after Mars landing. So 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 ‘Mars Yard’ of French space agency CNES for a two-day test campaig