The European Space Agency (ESA) has enlisted Airbus to help it build a Mars rover called'Fetch' that will find and retrieve rock samples on the Red Planet. The defence and space arm of the aerospace corporation won the upcoming phase of the contract to develop the robot as part of the'Mars Sample Return' mission. Fetch will travel across the surface of the Red Planet in 2028 collecting packaged rock samples left behind by the NASA's Perseverance rover. The four-wheeled ESA rover will ultimately transport these samples to a'Mars Ascent Vehicle' which will carry them into orbit for collection by another ESA spacecraft. The European Space Agency (ESA) has enlisted Airbus to help it build a Mars rover called'Fetch' that will find and retrieve rock samples on the Red Planet.

Back in April, NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) agreed to figure out whether it's possible to bring Martian soil samples back to Earth. Now, the ESA has granted Airbus a $5.2 million contract to design a concept for a rover that can collect those samples on the red planet. The space agency has chosen Airbus' team in Stevenage, England, because they're already building the ExoMars rover that's scheduled to head to our neighboring planet in 2021. Unlike ExoMars and all its scientific instruments, the fetch rover's lone task is to find and collect the canisters of samples NASA's Mars 2020 rover prepares and leaves behind. However, that doesn't mean that designing the vehicle would be easy.

UK engineers will design a robot that can retrieve rock samples on Mars so they can be sent to Earth for study. The European Space Agency is issuing contracts to industry to spec the technology needed for what will be a complex joint undertaking with the US. Aerospace giant Airbus will scope the concept for a surface "fetch rover" at its Stevenage centre north of London. Esa and the American space agency (Nasa) expect to send the sample-return equipment to the Red Planet in 2026. "It will be a relatively small rover - about 130kg; but the requirements are very demanding," said Ben Boyes who will lead the feasibility team at Airbus.