(March 29): Airbus SE has won a £150 million (US$194 million or RM860.92 million) contract to develop a landing platform that will deliver a UK-built rover onto Mars for a mission to look for signs of life.

The European Space Agency (ESA) awarded Airbus UK the deal to build the lander for the ExoMars mission scheduled to launch in 2028 with Nasa, the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) said on Saturday. The rover, built by Airbus, is set to touch down on Mars at the end of the decade.

The contract is the first of its kind for Europe, and comes at a time when the region is trying to reduce its reliance on the US, especially in the defence and space sectors. The last rover mission was in 2021, when the US landed its Perseverance vehicle on the Red Planet to collect rocks and other materials for study back on Earth.

The rover, named after British scientist Rosalind Franklin, was ready to launch in 2022, but the ESA cut its space collaborations with Russia after the Ukraine war began. This meant Europe had to replace the missing Russian equipment for the mission, including the Mars lander, UK Technology Secretary Peter Kyle said in the statement.

Landing on Mars is challenging because of sand dunes, cliffs and boulders strewn across the planet. For that reason, the landing platform will have two ramps built in on opposite sides, so the rover can drive down onto the smoothest surface, according to the statement.

Once on Mars, the Rosalind Franklin rover will be able to drill two metres down into the surface to collect samples, as well as record data on the atmosphere and surface texture.

“The mission will supercharge our space know-how in the UK, and will advance our collective understanding of our solar system,” Kata Escott, the managing director of Airbus Defence and Space UK, said in a statement.

The contract will be funded by the UK government through its space agency, and create about 200 jobs in the country’s space sector, the DSIT said.

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