The Teide National Park in Tenerife is being used as a proving ground for a British developed space robot which could provide feedback during future exploratory missions to Mars, Mercury or the Moon.
Mars like landscape at Teide National Park - Picture credit: sanderovski & linda
The current project is focused on testing cameras and image processing software using Bridget Rover as a platform in preparation for the European Space Agency’s planned ExoMars mission.
The project is made up of European and American partners who are experimenting with numerous different systems integrated into Bridget to further the development of optical instruments capable of capturing images of other planets with never before seen accuracy.
Usually software and image processing from robots beaming back pictures can take weeks, but engineers and scientists on this Teide project are concentrating on getting that time down to just a few hours.
Bridget Rover is a prototype model and through its development the follow-on ExoMars Rover should prove to be much more autonomous than current models. ExoMars will be able to select its own route between targets and reach its next target more quickly and without the need for further commands from mission control.
This will be a breakthrough step in exploration as currently control signals beamed from Earth to Mars can take up to 20 minutes to reach the Rover.
Field trials began in Teide National Park last week and will continue until Friday 23 September. Progress of the Bridget Rover experiments can be followed at the following website: https://sites.google.com/site/bridgetrover/
Teide National Park is an easy drive of about an hour from CLC Worldwide’s Tenerife Resorts and is a must see attraction while holidaying on the island.
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