The robot combines the latest in autonomousnavigation and mobility technologies developed by iRobot with state-of-the-art telemedicine and electronic health record integration developed by InTouch Health.
Important roles for Europe include assembling the rover on its side of the Atlantic and using a British-designed autonomousnavigation system when the vehicle is on Mars.
The UK Space Agency, through its membership of Esa, is now arguing strongly for the Astrium autonomousnavigation system to be incorporated into the 2018 rover.
Although spacecraft instruments are set to return photographs and compositional data, the encounter primarily is a test of Deep Space 1's autonomousnavigation system, the last of 12 technologies the mission was designed to pioneer.