The current plans foresee a launch in 2028, but before the ExoMars spacecraft and rover leave the launchpad, you can enjoy the mission in minute detail – everything down to the colour and size of the wires, sticky tape and scratches. The spacecraft, the rover and martian landscapes are true to reality.
The series
After the launch of the trailer in 2023, the production is on track for the release of three episodes per year.
Each episode will be accompanied by articles that explore the science and technical challenges of the mission, the martian environment and the teams involved.
The series will cover different mission phases and show the rover’s science instruments in action during its search for past and present signs of life on the Red Planet.
Episodes overview
Episode 1: Scouting Mars
This episode starts after a successful descent and landing on the Red Planet. Rosalind Franklin is on the move using a unique wheel-walking locomotion mode to overcome difficult terrains.
A major goal of the mission is to understand the geological context and identify minerals formed in the presence of water. The scientific eyes of the rover work in synergy atop of Rosalind’s mast. While PanCam is used to obtain colour, visual information of what lies around the rover, Enfys’ job is to inform scientists what the minerals are.
Episode 2: Below the surface
The Rosalind Franklin rover is designed to drill deep enough, up to two metres, to get access to well-preserved organic material from four billion years ago, when conditions on the surface of Mars were more like those on infant Earth.
The cameras and the ground penetrating radar will show scientists on Earth what lies ahead and under the rover. This is precious information to plan the drilling, a fundamental part of the mission.
This episode will see the radar in action, and how the rover will look at the samples from different angles using panoramic images and detailed views of the soil with two sets of cameras: PanCam and CLUPI.
Episode 3: Drilling in detail
The ExoMars drill is an assembly of mechanisms that rely on an automated choreography of tools and mounting rods. This episode shows how a series of tools and extension rods are fitted to form a ‘drill string’ and can reach the full 2m length when all are connected.
The drill has also a two-degree of freedom positioner that allows it to discharge the sample at the right angle into the rover laboratory. In parallel, the rover will investigate the borehole’s mineralogy with infrared spectroscopy.
Episode 4: Precious sampling
The reliable acquisition of deep samples that are preserved from the harsh radiation environment at the surface is key for ExoMars’ main science objective: to investigate the chemical composition of the soil, and with it, possible signs of life.
This episode unveils the mechanisms behind sample processing, how the sample is treated inside the rover’s lab and why the size and laying of the grains of soil matter.
The drill acquires a sample in the shape of a pellet of about 1 cm in diameter. Credits: ESA
Once the drill is completely retracted, a pellet is dropped into a drawer that withdraws and transfersthe sample into a crushing station. The resulting powder is distributed to ovens and containers for scientific analysis.
Episode 5: Rosalind’s lab
A look inside the most sophisticated analytical laboratory at work on Mars. The episode will explain how the rover identifies the most promising targets using the MicroOmega instrument, and how mineralogy and organic chemistry analysis is conducted inside its belly with the RLS and MOMA instruments.
Rosalind Franklin analyses the samples in the infrared to produce a mineralogy map. The animation will show what the rover finds in terms of mineralogy and organics.
Episode 6: Ancient Mars
Flashback to the landing site, Oxia Planum, 4 billion years ago. Ancient Mars was a wide expanse of ice with large lakes surrounding volcanoes spewing ash and hydrothermal systems producing steam. The ash falls on the ice. The sky is blue.
This episode explains the volcanic activity typical of a young planet and shows some interesting targets that the ExoMars team hopes to find around the landing site.
The episode closes with the view changing to a dry Mars, with a salmon colour sky – Mars today.
Episode 7: The landing
The visual journey takes us through separation from the carrier module, hypersonic entry, and supersonic parachute deployment, followed by scientific operations on the martian surface.
The landing sequence includes the speeds and timing at various stages, as well as the qualification of the parachutes on Earth.
Upon landing, Rosalind Franklin opens its solar panels and locomotion system elements. The rover rises, the mast deploys, cameras capture a panorama.
The rover needs to decide in which direction to egress considering the terrain in the landing site and check the organic background around it before starting the science mission.
Episode 8: The ExoMars Rosalind Franklin movie
Compilation of all the episodes into one movie to show the rover’s journey during its search of past and present signs of life on the Red Planet.
Episode 9: The making of
The mission has been years in the making and faced constant twists and challenges, and so did its movie.
This is the story behind the most accurate animation of a Mars mission made so far, including how the various segments were modeleled and brought to live and interviews to the team explaining how they chose to depict the mission.
Hydrothermal modelling and shading. Credits: ESA/mlabspace
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