Rosalind Franklin Rover Hanging Decoration

This rover is not just for Christmas! A celebration of our endeavours to discover evidence of life on Mars, it deserves to be hung up all year round. 

The hand-painted ornament is a model of the Rosalind Franklin rover, named by the European Space Agency in honour of the British chemist. The rover is due to land on the red planet in 2030 as part of the ExoMars programme.

Once landed, it will roam the surface covering up to 100 metres per Martian day, drill down to collect samples and analyse them in its onboard lab. The hope is that any well-preserved organic material discovered might help us understand Mars’s early history and whether life ever existed there.