There might be a Bruno Mars Rover on Mars by 2020 -- hopefully.

Bruno Mars is one of three British-made Mars prototype rovers designed and being built at Stevenage in England by Airbus Defense and Space, a division of Airbus Group. Bruno and its siblings, Bridget and Bryan, are ExoMars Rovers that will explore Mars for six months relying on their artificial intelligence. They can also be operated remotely from the International Space Station (ISS).

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One of these six wheeled machines will land on Mars in 2020 aboard the ExoMars Surface Platform, a Russian-built lander. This rover is expected to have an AI brain similar to Bruno's. It will search out signs of microbial life on Mars by digging out and examining soil samples.

The smart rover, which will be the first British rover to land on the Red Planet, will have the unique ability to create a 3D map of its surroundings; determine its own path and steer itself. It will be deposited on Mars by the ExoMars orbiter.

ExoMars for Exobiology on Mars is an astrobiology project that will investigate the past habitability environment of Mars. It will also demonstrate new technologies on a future Mars sample return mission in the 2020s.

ExoMars is a joint mission of European Space Agency (ESA) and Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos).

"It's not possible to drive this sort of machine with a joystick. You'll crash it," said Ralph Cordey, head of science at Airbus Defense and Space.

He said Mars is so far that radio signals take 40 minutes to be shunted back and forth.

"So this rover is designed to be semi-autonomous."

The ExoMars Rovers, however, have shown they can be confused by shadows formed by caves and craters. The solution is to have a human control this robot from the ISS when the need arises.

British astronaut Tim Peake, who's quite adept at video games, proved this possible in May when he successfully controlled the rover named Bridget from aboard the ISS. He drove rover into a simulated cave and achieved the tasks assigned him.

"We want the UK to be at the forefront of major discoveries like this," said Jo Johnson, the United Kingdom's Minister of State for Universities and Science.

Let's hope the British choose Bruno Mars the Rover for this historic mission. But Bruno's American, isn't he?

TagsBruno Mars, United Kingdom, ExoMars Rover, ExoMars