The twin of ESA’s Rosalind Franklin rover, also known as The Ground Test Model (GTM), has been busy surveying 64 square metres of terrain in one of Europe’s largest Mars yards, carefully staged with sandy areas and rocks of various sizes, as well as gravity and light simulations to recreate the environment on Mars, at the Rover Operations Control Centre (ROCC).
Teams from Thales Alenias Space and ALTEC worked in synergy with ESA engineers. This image of a monitor screen shows the rover from different angles during simulations in July 2021.