NASA's next Mars rover progresses toward2020 launch15 July 2016

NASA's 2020 Mars rover mission will go to a region ofMars thought to have offered favorable conditions longago for microbial life, and the rover will search for signsof past life there. It will also collect and cache samplesfor potential return to Earth, for many types of laboratoryanalysis. As a pioneering step toward how humans onMars will use the Red Planet's natural resources, therover will extract oxygen from the Martian atmosphere.This 2016 image comes from computer-assisted-designwork on the 2020 rover. The design leverages manysuccessful features of NASA's Curiosity rover, whichlanded on Mars in 2012, but it adds new scienceinstruments and a sampling system to carry out the newgoals for the mission. Credit: NASA

After an extensive review process and passing amajor development milestone, NASA is ready toproceed with final design and construction of itsnext Mars rover, currently targeted to launch insummer of 2020 and arrive on the Red Planet inFebruary 2021.

The Mars 2020 rover will investigate a region ofMars where the ancient environment may havebeen favorable for microbial life, probing theMartian rocks for evidence of past life. Throughoutits investigation, it will collect samples of soil androck, and cache them on the surface for potentialreturn to Earth by a future mission.

"The Mars 2020 rover is the first step in a potentialmulti-mission campaign to return carefully selectedand sealed samples of Martian rocks and soil toEarth," said Geoffrey Yoder, acting associateadministrator of NASA's Science MissionDirectorate in Washington. "This mission marks asignificant milestone in NASA's Journey to Mars—todetermine whether life has ever existed on Mars,and to advance our goal of sending humans to theRed Planet."

To reduce risk and provide cost savings, the 2020rover will look much like its six-wheeled, one-tonpredecessor, Curiosity, but with an array of new science instruments and enhancements to exploreMars as never before. For example, the rover willconduct the first investigation into the usability andavailability of Martian resources, including oxygen,in preparation for human missions.

Mars 2020 will carry an entirely new subsystem tocollect and prepare Martian rocks and soil samplesthat includes a coring drill on its arm and a rack ofsample tubes. About 30 of these sample tubes willbe deposited at select locations for return on apotential future sample-retrieval mission. Inlaboratories on Earth, specimens from Mars couldbe analyzed for evidence of past life on Mars andpossible health hazards for future human missions.

Two science instruments mounted on the rover'srobotic arm will be used to search for signs of pastlife and determine where to collect samples byanalyzing the chemical, mineral, physical andorganic characteristics of Martian rocks. On therover's mast, two science instruments will providehigh-resolution imaging and three types ofspectroscopy for characterizing rocks and soil froma distance, also helping to determine which rocktargets to explore up close.

A suite of sensors on the mast and deck willmonitor weather conditions and the dustenvironment, and a ground-penetrating radar will

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assess sub-surface geologic structure.

The Mars 2020 rover will use the same sky cranelanding system as Curiosity, but will have the abilityto land in more challenging terrain with twoenhancements, making more rugged sites eligibleas safe landing candidates.

"By adding what's known as range trigger, we canspecify where we want the parachute to open, notjust at what velocity we want it to open," said AllenChen, Mars 2020 entry, descent and landing leadat NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena,California. "That shrinks our landing area by nearlyhalf."

Terrain-relative navigation on the new rover will useonboard analysis of downward-looking imagestaken during descent, matching them to a map thatindicates zones designated unsafe for landing.

"As it is descending, the spacecraft can tell whetherit is headed for one of the unsafe zones and divertto safe ground nearby," said Chen. "With thiscapability, we can now consider landing areas withunsafe zones that previously would havedisqualified the whole area. Also, we can landcloser to a specific science destination, for lessdriving after landing."

There will be a suite of cameras and a microphonethat will capture the never-before-seen or heardimagery and sounds of the entry, descent andlanding sequence. Information from the descentcameras and microphone will provide valuable datato assist in planning future Mars landings, andmake for thrilling video.

"Nobody has ever seen what a parachute looks likeas it is opening in the Martian atmosphere," saidJPL's David Gruel, assistant flight system managerfor the Mars 2020 mission. "So this will providevaluable engineering information."

Microphones have flown on previous missions toMars, including NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander in2008, but never have actually been used on thesurface of the Red Planet.

"This will be a great opportunity for the public to

hear the sounds of Mars for the first time, and itcould also provide useful engineering information,"said Mars 2020 Deputy Project Manager MattWallace of JPL.

Once a mission receives preliminary approval, itmust go through four rigorous technical andprogrammatic reviews - known as Key DecisionPoints (KDP) - to proceed through the phases ofdevelopment prior to launch. Phase A involvesconcept and requirements definition, Phase B ispreliminary design and technology development,Phase C is final design and fabrication, and PhaseD is system assembly, testing and launch. Mars2020 has just passed its KDP-C milestone.

"Since Mars 2020 is leveraging the design andsome spare hardware from Curiosity, a significantamount of the mission's heritage components havealready been built during Phases A and B," saidGeorge Tahu, Mars 2020 program executive atNASA Headquarters in Washington. "With the KDPto enter Phase C completed, the project isproceeding with final design and construction of thenew systems, as well as the rest of the heritageelements for the mission."

The Mars 2020 mission is part of NASA's MarsExploration Program. Driven by scientific discovery,the program currently includes two active roversand three NASA spacecraft orbiting Mars. NASAalso plans to launch a stationary Mars lander in2018, InSight, to study the deep interior of Mars.

More information: mars.nasa.gov/mars2020

Provided by NASA

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APA citation: NASA's next Mars rover progresses toward 2020 launch (2016, July 15) retrieved 6 July2018 from https://phys.org/news/2016-07-nasa-mars-rover.html

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