ESA tests ExoMars Charlie rover in Spain's Tabernas Desert ahead of 2028 launch

Field trials in the Tabernas Desert

The European Space Agency and Airbus concluded a three-week testing campaign in the Tabernas Desert in Almería, Spain, on 1 October 2026. Testing took place across the Las Lomillas landscape, a rugged terrain previously used by Steven Spielberg to film tank chase scenes in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. Engineers selected Tabernas because its clay and carbonate minerals, alongside geological evidence of past water and rock interactions, closely mirror conditions on Mars. Over the final stage of the trial, a 15-person field team supported nine consecutive days of operational simulations without recording any severe mechanical or software breakdowns. The exercises utilized Charlie, a six-wheeled engineering prototype designed to reproduce the exact driving dynamics, chassis mobility, and operational behavior of the Rosalind Franklin flight rover.

Remote operations and latency protocols

Rover operations were managed from the Rover Operations Control Centre in Turin, Italy, where roughly 60 engineers directed vehicle activities via satellite links. Real-time manual steering is impossible during actual Martian operations because the distance between planets creates a communication latency of around 20 minutes at the speed of light. To practice under strict autonomous protocols, the Turin team prepared daily activity schedules each morning and dispatched them to the Spanish desert. Field engineers in Tabernas uploaded the instructions to Charlie, allowing the robotic vehicle to navigate paths, map surrounding terrain, and avoid obstacles independently. During the flight mission, data and commands will be triangulated between Earth stations and the surface vehicle through the Trace Gas Orbiter currently in Martian orbit.

Coordination and team preparation

Airbus Defence and Space test team leader Vincent Schaeffer noted that preparing ground controllers to coordinate as if the vehicle were on Mars was the central goal of the campaign.

Los ensayos que estamos haciendo estas tres semanas en el Desierto de Tabernas son para entrenar a las personas que están en el centro de control del rover ExoMars, en Turín, en Italia.

Benoît Pouffary, chief engineer at the European Space Agency Exploration Directorate, described the Spanish desert as an optimal proxy for planetary field trials.

Estamos en un lugar que es, quizás, el mejor lugar del mundo para simular lo que el rover se encontrará cuando llegue a Marte.

Pouffary explained that practicing remote coordination on Earth avoids operational delays that could compromise science objectives once the rover operates millions of kilometres away.

The ExoMars mission roadmap

The ExoMars project includes a cruise stage, an entry, descent, and landing module, and the scientific rover, representing Europe's first surface landing attempt on Mars. The Rosalind Franklin flight rover is scheduled to launch from Earth in 2028 and touch down on the Martian surface in 2030. Equipped with stereoscopic localization cameras and analytical instruments, the rover features a dedicated sub-surface drill capable of extracting core samples down to two meters. Scientific teams target that depth because sub-surface rock and soil remain protected from harsh surface radiation, increasing the probability of preserving organic molecules and ancient biosignatures.