This article will be permanently flagged as inappropriate and made unaccessible to everyone. Are you certain this article is inappropriate? Excessive Violence Sexual Content Political / Social
Email Address:
Article Id: WHEBN0037837437 Reproduction Date:
The Mars 2020 rover mission is a Mars planetary rover mission concept under study by NASA with a proposed launch in 2020.[1] It is intended to investigate an astrobiologically relevant ancient environment on Mars, investigate its surface geological processes and history, including the assessment of its past habitability and potential for preservation of biosignatures within accessible geological materials.[2][3]
The Mars 2020 rover mission was announced by NASA on 4 December 2012 at the fall meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco.[4] The rover's design will be derived from the Curiosity rover, and would carry a different scientific payload.[5] Nearly 60 proposals[6][7] for rover instrumentation were evaluated and, on 31 July 2014, NASA announced the payload for the rover.[8][9]
The rover is proposed to be launched in 2020.[4] The Jet Propulsion Laboratory would manage the mission. The specific payload and science instruments for the mission will be debated and selected by April 2014 through an open competition after the scientific objectives for the mission have been formulated.[11] The mission will also be contingent on receiving adequate funding.[12][13][14] Precise mission details will be determined by the mission's science definition team.[12]
NASA's Mars Program Planning Group (MPPG), as well as the associate administrator of science John Grunsfeld, endorse a sample retrieval and return mission to Earth for scientific analysis.[14][15][16] Regardless, a mission requirement is that it must help prepare NASA for its long-term sample return or manned mission efforts.[3][16][17]
During a press conference in 9 July 2013, the Mars 2020 Science Definition Team, reiterated that the rover should look for signs of past life, collect samples for possible future return to Earth, and demonstrate technology for future human exploration of Mars. The Science Definition Team is proposing the rover collect and package as many as 31 samples of rock cores and soil for a later mission to bring back for more definitive analysis in laboratories on Earth. In September 2013 NASA launched an Announcement of Opportunity for researchers to propose and develop the instruments needed, including a core sample cache, thereby satisfying NRC Planetary Decadal Survey science recommendations.[18][19] The science conducted by the rover's instruments would provide the context needed to make wise decisions about whether to return the samples to Earth.[20] The chairman of the Science Definition Team stated that NASA does not presume that life ever existed on Mars, but given the recent Curiosity rover findings, past Martian life seems possible.[20]
The rover could make measurements and technology demonstrations to help designers of a human expedition understand any hazards posed by Martian dust and demonstrate how to collect carbon dioxide (CO2), which could be a resource for making oxygen (O2) and rocket fuel.[11] Improved precision landing technology that enhances the scientific value of robotic missions also will be critical for eventual human exploration on the surface.[21] Based on input from the Science Definition Team, NASA will select final objectives for the 2020 rover. Those will become the basis for soliciting proposals to provide instruments for the rover's science payload in the spring 2014.[11]
As proposed, the rover would be based on the design of Curiosity.[4] While there will be differences in scientific instruments and the engineering required to support them, the entire landing system (including the sky crane and heat shield) and rover chassis can essentially be recreated without any additional engineering or research. This reduces overall technical risk for the mission, while saving funds and time on development.[22]
Among the leftover Curiosity equipment, a radioisotope thermoelectric generator—originally intended as a backup part for Curiosity—will power the rover.[4][23]
The new rover mission and launch is estimated to cost roughly US$1.5 billion, plus or minus $200 million, according to The Aerospace Corporation. The mission's predecessor, the Mars Science Laboratory, cost US$2.5 billion in total.[4] NASA was working toward coming up with its own estimate as of the day of the announcement.[24] NASA associate administrator of science John Grunsfeld said it was the availability of spare parts that would make the new rover affordable on NASA's lean budget. Curiosity's engineering team will also be involved in the new rover's design.[4][12]
In reaction to the announcement, California U.S. Representative Adam Schiff came out in support of the new rover mission plans, saying that "an upgraded rover with additional instrumentation and capabilities is a logical next step that builds upon now proven landing and surface operations systems."[4] Schiff also said he favored an expedited launch in 2018 which would enable an even greater payload to be launched to Mars. Schiff said he would be working with NASA, White House administration and Congress to explore the possibility of advancing the launch date.[4]
NASA's science chief John Grunsfeld responded that while it could be possible to launch in 2018, "it would be a push." Grunsfeld said a 2018 launch would require certain science investigations be excluded from the rover and that even the 2020 launch target would be "ambitious."[4]
Space educator Bill Nye added his support for the planned mission saying, “We don't want to stop what we're doing on Mars because we're closer than ever to answering these questions: Was there life on Mars and stranger still, is there life there now in some extraordinary place that we haven't yet looked at? Mars was once very wet—it had oceans and lakes. Did life start on Mars and get flung into space and we are all descendants of Martian microbes? It's not crazy, and it's worth finding out. It's worth the cost of a cup of coffee per taxpayer every 10 years or 13 years to find out.” Nye also endorsed a Mars sample-return role, saying “The amount of information you can get from a sample returned from Mars is believed to be extraordinarily fantastic and world-changing and worthy."[33]
The selection has been criticized for NASA's constant attention to Mars,[34] and neglecting other Solar System destinations in constrained budget times.
Using spare parts and mission plans developed for NASA's Curiosity Mars rover, the space agency says it can build and launch a new rover in 2020 and stay within current budget guidelines.
Apollo program, International Space Station, Soviet Union, Mars, Space Shuttle
Solar System, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, Oxygen, Mercury (planet), Moon
Mars, ExoMars, Mars 2020, European Space Agency, Russian Federal Space Agency
Mars, Mars 2020, Mars One, ExoMars, Mars Science Laboratory