Saft Preps Battery for ExoMars Rover
Image: European Space Agency.
Battery maker Saft has received a contract worth more than one million euros from Airbus Defence and Space Ltd to develop and test a lithium-ion battery for the ExoMars rover.
The rover is the key component of the ExoMars program, run jointly by the European Space Agency and the Russian space agency, Roscosmos.
The program is searching for evidence of current or former life on Mars. The ExoMars rover is to land on the surface of the planet and move between a number of locations to drill for rock and soil samples.
Saft, based in France, is scheduled to deliver before the end of 2016 to meet the planned launch date of 2018.
