• Question: have you sent any of your robots into space or are you working on one

    Asked by BuzzBea to Elie on 16 Mar 2016.
    • Photo: Elie Allouis

      Elie Allouis answered on 16 Mar 2016:

      Hi Buzzbea!

      At work, a whole team of engineers is working hard on the ExoMars rover that will be launched in 2018.

      As part of my work in the Futures Programmes, I am looking even further than that at robots we could send to the Moon, Mars or Phobos for example.

      Currently we are designing a mission to explore Phobos, one of the moons around Mars around 2022. This will be a great rehearsal for when we want to return samples from Mars itself. I am mainly working on the design of a 2.5m long robotic arm and tools to capture some samples on the surface. But this is still at the design stage :-P.
      Recently we have completed the building of a (real) new robotic arm with some funky technologies like 3d printed titanium that look quite organic…probably a sign of things to come in the future…so watch this space ! 😉

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