ExoMars rover: front view, annotated

Artist’s impression of the ExoMars 2020 rover. This image shows the rover as viewed from the front.

The 310 kg rover will traverse the martian landscape on six wheels. It will be the first rover capable of drilling down 2 m, where ancient biomarkers may still be preserved from the harsh radiation environment on the surface. The drill is housed in the large box at the front of the rover. It will collect samples with the drill and deliver them to the Analytical Laboratory Drawer in the body of the rover, via the sample delivery window.

The drill, shown here with the front casing of the drill box removed to reveal the interior, also contains the Mars Multispectral Imager for Subsurface Studies (Ma_MISS), which will image the walls of the borehole created by the drill to study the mineralogy and rock formation.

PanCam, the panoramic camera, will provide stereo and 3D imagery of the terrain around the rover. The Infrared Spectrometer for ExoMars (ISEM) will determine the major mineral composition of distant rocks, outcrops, and soils. The Close-Up Imager, CLUPI, will acquire high-resolution, colour, close-up images of outcrops, rocks, soils, drill fines and drill core samples. Navigation cameras and ‘localisation’ cameras are used to determine where the rover is and where it will move.

Not all instruments are visible in this view.