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Engineer Ben Nye walks past a robotic vehicle on the “Mars Yard Test Area”, a testing ground for the robotic vehicles of the European Space Agency’s ExoMars program scheduled for 2018, in Stevenage, England, Thursday, March 27, 2014. It looks like a giant sandbox – except the sand has a reddish tint and the “toys” on display are very expensive prototypes designed to withstand the rigors of landing on Mars. The scientists here work on the development of the autonomous navigation capabilities of the vehicle, so by being in communication with controllers on earth twice a day, will be able to use the transmitted information to navigate to new destinations on Mars. (Photo by Lefteris Pitarakis/AP Photo)
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