Overview
- YouTuber Tom Scott visited Airbus’s Stevenage facility and was given a Steam Deck to operate an ExoMars prototype on the company’s test bed during a filmed demonstration.
- The handheld ran bespoke control software and used its thumbsticks, triggers, face buttons and a bumper to steer the rover and rotate its wheels 90 degrees for sideways movement.
- Airbus says the Deck is a development and test interface rather than planned flight hardware, and engineers are continuing to build autonomous navigation so the rover will not require manual steering on Mars.
- Teams at Stevenage are also designing the landing platform’s mechanical, thermal and propulsion systems for the Rosalind Franklin rover project that has been under development for more than two decades.
- The demonstration highlights how a flexible, off‑the‑shelf Linux PC with built‑in controls, touch, Wi‑Fi and Bluetooth can speed prototyping, simplify operator interfaces and serve as a low-cost testing tool for complex aerospace systems.