The German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI) will test new space technologies in the Moroccan Sahara desert.

Rabat – According to a press release by the Robotics Innovation Center in Bremen, Germany, the center will conduct a four-week field test campaign November 14 to December 14, on the northern part of the Moroccan Sahara as part of the European Union’s Strategic Research Cluster (SRC) on Space Robotics Technologies.

The overall goal of this strategic research cluster (SRC) is to enable major advances in Europe’s space robotic technologies.

The project is a joint collaboration between the European Space Agency (ESA), the German Aerospace Center (DLR) and the national space agencies of France, Spain, Italy, and Great Britain.

Inspired by the NASA Mars Sample Return Mission, the field test campaign aims to make use of a recently developed software which enables a rover connected to a robot to cross nsa one-kilometer distance over the Moroccan desert to collect soil samples.

In the process, the rover will have to make his way through the different ground obstacles since the area is known for wide plains, steep slopes, and gorges.

The rover has already successfully participated in a simulated space mission in the semi-desert of Utah, USA, in 2016.