At the request of Airbus Defence and Space, a prototyping company based in Letchworth, UK, designed and delivered the body and solar panels on a Mars Lander rover chassis to be used for terrain handling and testing purposes under laboratory conditions.

The robotic rover will be used as part of the second phase of ExoMars to follow up studies exploring the possibility of life on Mars, by drilling below the surface to detect organisms directly.

The ground-based prototype of the Mars Rover.Ogle Models & Prototypes used fiber faced aluminum composite Cellite panels to keep the weight of the body and solar panels of the Ground Demonstration Model to a minimum.

A CNC machine was used to create 15mm medium-density fiberboard jigs and a table router was used to cut out the Cellite panels from the jigs. Any exposed edges were filled with automotive filler and sanded back to provide a seal. Ogle’s model makers worked to bond a threaded metal insert to enable bolts and fixings to move securely.

The completed panels were then bonded onto selective laser sintered (SLS) printed extrusions which, when assembled, formed a 3-D skeleton with the Cellite panels spanning the flat surfaces.

The tub and solar array was finished in metallic gold which was matched to represent the radiation shielding on the real Mars Rover and eight SLS hinges were designed and printed to allow the solar array to unfold. This section was finished with large vinyls that were printed with the image of photovoltaic cells, and applied to the upper surfaces.