Airbus keeps key role for ESA's Fetch Mars rover

The European Space Agency has awarded a contract to the United Kingdom-based arm of aerospace giant Airbus to continue work on its next Mars rover.

British-based scientists and engineers are already working on the first phase of the 2026 Mars rover as part of a joint campaign between the United States' National Aeronautics and Space Administration, or NASA, and the European Space Agency, or ESA, to collect samples from Mars and return them to Earth.

The new rover for 2026 is dubbed "Fetch" because its mission will be to find and retrieve the rock samples that will have been collected on the surface by the US' Perseverance rover, which is heading to Mars next month.