ExoMars stretches out its legs

The footage shows the simultaneous deployment of two landing legs from the ExoMars landing platform, in two sequential pairs.  

The legs travel stowed on the spacecraft through deep space, and are automatically deployed in pairs in less than a second using non-explosive actuators, just after the front shield is jettisoned. This is a crucial step in the landing module’s preparation for touchdown.  

The tests used a full-scale model of the landing platform at the Thales Alenia facilities in Turin, Italy. The four legs replicate the structure and dimensions of those that will fly to Mars. 

The landing legs are crucial gear for the safe touchdown of ESA’s ExoMars Rosalind Franklin rover mission in 2030, alongside parachutes and engines that will slow the spacecraft’s descent onto Mars.   

While Thales Alenia Space is the industrial lead of the mission, Airbus provides the landing platform.  Teams from the Sener company, based in Spain, designed and built the landing legs.