Mars Rover FCET graduate Martin Garland

Martin Garland, 2008 Design Technology for Robotics graduate, could be found with colleagues in a Bedfordshire quarry testing the optical system for the European Space Agency's prototype Mars Rover this week.  Martin may be glimpsed by those who know him well in the short films on Channel 4 and BBC website.

Martin was recruited by EADS Astrium after graduation to work on the Mars Rover.  Martin's final year project was an all terrain robot spider (PDF, file size: 331.8KB) with which he won prizes at GradEX08 and the IET's West Midlands University Challenge.  The spider has many systems in common to the planned Rover making Martin the ideal recruit and working for Astrium his dream job.  Martin had other job offers but had to turn them down whilst waiting to see if he passed the security vetting procedures!  Martin says the he has been 'crazy busy at work' recently in the run up to the trials.