The Anon rover was built for Mars; however, the interplanetary mission did not go as planned. More precisely, he never made a trip to Mars. The car-sized robot is now undergoing tests at a quarry near London in hopes it could one day make it to the Moon.
Over the past two weeks, Airbus has been testing this vehicle at a quarry near Milton Keynes in the United Kingdom, which simulates space environments. During the tests, it is aimed to demonstrate their ability to collect samples. The development team hopes the rover will eventually be able to explore and work on the Moon, The Guardian reports.
The Mars Sample Fetch Rover, also known as Anon, was built by the European aerospace company Airbus and is designed to collect sample tubes left behind by NASA’s Perseverance rover, which has been circling the Red Planet since February 2021. But earlier this year, NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) announced a change in plans for the Mars Sample Return mission, which aims to bring samples back to Earth over the next decade. Instead of using the sample return vehicle, NASA wants Perseverance to transfer the sample tubes to a nearby landing craft. Also, the space agency wants to send two Ingenuity-class helicopters to Jezero Crater to collect the sample tubes and deliver them near the lander.
The sudden change in plans meant Anon’s trip to Mars was cancelled. However, the developers who have been working on the rover for the last four years do not want to give up this vehicle yet and continue to test the rover systems. “Even if the mission is terminated, the core technology is still ready, able to continue, and this is the final step in proving it’s working,” Airbus project manager Ben Dobke told The Guardian.
Anon may travel to the surface of the Moon as part of NASA’s Artemis program, which seeks to create a sustainable presence in the lunar environment rather than Mars. The rover will not collect sample tubes on the Moon, but can be used for other purposes, such as helping create lunar habitats.
The rover will need to undergo some minor changes for a Moon mission. Anon will need to be adjusted to be able to recover after 14 days of long nights on the Moon, meaning complete darkness for extended periods of time, The Guardian reports. Anon’s journey to the Moon is not finalized yet, but its developers want to be prepared for such an opportunity.
Anon is the second European-made Mars rover to miss a chance to visit the Red Planet. ESA’s ExoMars rover was also supposed to launch this year, but the space agency suspended a joint mission with the Russian space agency Roscosmos following the invasion of Ukraine. The two rovers are currently awaiting their new destiny, but both seem ready to explore in space.
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