Picture of the Week: Hail CESAR

That is a picture of the CESAR rover, which won last week's ESA Lunar Robotics Challenge. Built by a student team from the Bremen University, the rover completed the task of descending down the steep slopes of a 15-meter deep crater, grab a soil sample, and return it (all in darkness).

Check out the CESAR site for details from the team on their rover (and their experience), and below is a Youtube clip of the victorious little guy conquering a hill in practice:



The lunar surface is a challenging environment, and it'll be a lot of fun to see the variety of designs for rovers that come along, and to see them in action there within the next few years :)