Millions of miles above Earth, freezing temperatures, ferocious dust storms and a massive dose of radiation await robots charged with finding signs of life on Mars.

And those are just the known risks. If and when the ExoMars rover mission, led by the European Space Agency (ESA) and planned for launch in 2018, successfully lands on the red planet, it will battle a hugely hostile environment and unknown obstacles as it attempts to drill down into the surface.

Back on Earth, on the outskirts of Stevenage, a 1950s block is the unlikely backdrop for crucial research into this high-risk mission. Here, scientists are carrying out some of the most complex and advanced work in Britain.

It is home to Astrium, the space division of European aerospace group EADS, and a £1bn business in the UK. The company has created a "Mars Yard" at Stevenage, where rover prototypes tackle some of the potential obstacles the real thing can expect to meet. The attempt at recreating some of the conditions on Mars involves large and small rocks scattered on imported sand designed to mimic as closely as possible the properties of Martian sand.

"The surface of Mars is a horrible place. It's bombarded by the solar wind from the sun. It's not like the Earth – the Earth has a wonderful magnetosphere, which protects us from gunk out in the solar system," says Dr Ralph Cordey, head of business development for science and exploration at Astrium.

The rover will have to fend for itself on Mars. It will need to be smart enough to map its course, and understand which obstacles it can overcome and which it cannot.

American rovers have already landed on Mars, but this programme is different, according to Cordey. "We want to do more than just land somewhere and have a look around," he says. "If we can drill down, we may find the remains of things which perhaps were living there several billion years ago, when conditions were much more benign."

As with all such missions, there is no guarantee of success, and the launch date has already been delayed several times. Yet it signals intent from the ESA, Europe's "gateway to space", which has 20 member states, including Britain. It is an opportunity to prove that Europe can successfully send a rover to Mars.

Britain's own ambitions in space are also accelerating. The industry is worth about £9bn annually to the UK economy, and employs almost 30,000 people. The target, outlined by trade body UKspace, is to increase that to £19bn by 2020 and £40bn by 2030, potentially creating more than 100,000 skilled jobs over that period.

It would take Britain's share of the global space market from 6.5% to 10% by 2030, building on work already being done in places like Stevenage. The UK currently exports about £2bn of space goods and services every year, with satellites sold around the world – this year to markets in Russia, South America and Canada, among others. But that could and should rise to £25bn, according to an updated space growth action plan, published last week.

In the plan, industry calls on the government to play a bigger role in delivering this long-term vision, by making the UK the best place for entrepreneurs and skilled engineers to grow and create space businesses, and to attract inward investment.

Andy Green, president of UKspace and former Logica chief executive, argues that while "the UK punches above its weight in the global space business", greater policy support is needed.

The government appears to be taking more notice than in the past of an industry that has been growing at an average annual rate of 7.5% since 2008-09, despite the financial crisis. It has created a UK Space Agency, falling under the umbrella of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, and is working with industry through the Space Leadership Council.

David Willetts, universities and science minister, increased Britain's budgetary contribution to the ESA last year, making the UK the fourth-biggest partner. "Where things are affordable and deliverable we will do our best to do them," he says, adding that the government will respond to the industry's calls in the new year.

"This is something that is rising up the agenda. When we talk about rebalancing the economy and not being dependent on financial services, we mean we've got to back the hi-tech industries of the future. Space is a classic example of that.

"My test for an industry that's a serious hi-tech growth industry is that they should be growing more rapidly than the Chinese economy. The space industry just about passes that test."

Yet the UK has never been considered a space heavyweight in the same league as the US, China, Russia, France and, increasingly, India. The latter launched a rocket bound for Mars this month.

"Much of the world would see the UK as a consumer and not a producer in the space industry," says Tom Captain, global head of aerospace and defence at Deloitte, who is based in the US.

David Parker, chief executive of the UK Space Agency, acknowledges the problem: "The UK was the third country to have space hardware in orbit in 1962, and has a 50-year history of outstanding achievements in space activities, but if you asked 99% of people in the street they'd be entirely unaware of it."

Largely that is because Britain is virtually absent from the more high-profile business of launching rockets and people into space. But the hopes of industry and the government rest on the ever-expanding list of space technology applications that inform everyday life. Opportunities for growth lie not only in telecoms satellites but in Earth observation, GPS, planetary exploration, weather forecasting, maritime intelligence, piracy monitoring, space tourism, precision agriculture, broadband and so on.

It is impossible to predict the future but one of the areas tipped for expansion is the business of space junk clearance. Last week the burned remnants of an ESA satellite plunged into the South Atlantic but Nasa tracks more than 500,000 pieces of space debris, which are hurtling around the Earth at speeds up to 17,500mph. If such debris collides with functioning satellite equipment it can cause substantial damage.

"There's a lot of stuff up there and some of it has been there since the dawn of the space age, and every now and again comes back down again," Parker says. "Managing that more responsibly is itself a business opportunity."

The British astronaut Timothy Peake is preparing to take an ESA spaceflight in late 2015, carrying hopes that he will capture the imagination of a new generation of space enthusiasts.

In Stevenage, Astrium's Cordey says work is already under way on potential future missions to the Red Planet beyond ExoMars in 2018, but the possibility of a human journey is a leap too far for now.

"If you put a person on to Mars they could do the work very quickly but it's hugely expensive and we don't know how we would get someone back, so it's a bit of a one-way trip. I prefer robots right now for that."

UK spaceport is not science fiction