NASA’s Successor to Curiosity Rover Working Toward Summer Launch in 2020

To investigate Martian rocks for evidence of past life in advance of sending humans to work and live on the Red Planet

An artist concept image of where seven carefully-selected instruments will be located on NASA’s Mars 2020 rover. The instruments will conduct unprecedented science and exploration technology investigations on the Red Planet as never before.
IMAGE CREDIT: NASA

Space news (missions to Mars: successor to Curiosity rover; Mars 2020 rover) – NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California –

Planning for NASA’s 2020 Mars rover envisions a basic structure that capitalizes on the design and engineering work done for the NASA rover Curiosity, which landed on Mars in 2012, but with new science instruments selected through competition for accomplishing different science objectives. Mars 2020 is a mission concept that NASA announced in late 2012 to re-use the basic engineering of Mars Science Laboratory to send a different rover to Mars, with new objectives and instruments, launching in 2020. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, manages NASA’s Mars Exploration Program for the NASA Science Mission Directorate, Washington.
Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech

NASA managers are looking forward to shifting gears on the Mars rover program in the 2020s. NASA’s Mars 2020 rover’s expected to arrive at the Red Planet around February 2021, carrying a science instrument package designed to build upon the success of NASA’s Mars Curiosity rover. It will investigate regions of the planet astrobiologists think were once favorable to microbial life, by collecting soil and rock samples, and then leaving them on the surface for a future Mars mission to collect for the possible return to Earth.

Terrain-Relative Navigation helps us land safely on Mars – especially when the land below is full of hazards like steep slopes and large rocks! The Mars 2020 spacecraft follows an entry, descent, landing process similar to that used in landing the Mars rover, Curiosity. It also has major new technologies that improve entry, descent, and landing: Range Trigger, Terrain-Relative Navigation, MEDLI and its EDL caneras and microphone. Credits: NASA/JPL

“The Mars 2020 rover is the first step in a potential multi-mission campaign to return carefully selected and sealed samples of Martian rocks and soil to Earth,” said Geoffrey Yoder, acting associate administrator of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington. “This mission marks a significant milestone in NASA’s Journey to Mars, to determine whether life has ever existed on Mars, and to advance our goal of sending humans to the Red Planet.”

The surface operations phase is the time when the rover conducts its scientific studies on Mars. After landing safely, Mars 2020 has a primary mission span of at least one Martian year (687 Earth days).
The Mars 2020 rover uses a depot caching strategy for its exploration of Mars. Credits: NASA/JPL

NASA engineers, scientists and mission planners are ready to begin final design and construction of the next Mars rover. In the end, Mars 2020 will look like its six-wheeled, one-ton predecessor, Curiosity, but with a science instrument package designed to begin a new phase of exploration of the surface of Mars. It will begin exploring specifically selected regions of the planet for signs of life and the resources needed for future colonists to survive. Using two science instruments mounted on the rover’s robotic arm and two instruments on the mast, NASA’s Mars 2020 rover’s expected to show us new things about the Red Planet.

Current plans call for the Mars 2020 rover to use an upgraded version of the same sky crane landing system used by Curiosity. Engineers and designers have added a few improvements to the system opening up more potential landing sites on Mars with this edition. Giving mission planners more options to explore the Red Planet to a greater degree and hopefully provide a few more answers to the questions we have all been asking ourselves about Mars. 

Allen Chen, Mars 2020 entry, descent, and landing lead at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory conducting Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) Entry Descent & Landing (EDL) activities in SFOF MSA Fishbowl. Pre-Landing. 
Date: 05 August/2012
Photographer: T. Wynne

“By adding what’s known as range trigger, we can specify where we want the parachute to open, not just at what velocity we want it to open,” said Allen Chen, Mars 2020 entry, descent and landing lead at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California. “That shrinks our landing area by nearly half.”

NASA is developing the capabilities needed to send humans to an asteroid by 2025 and Mars in the 2030s – goals outlined in the bipartisan NASA Authorization Act of 2010 and in the U.S. National Space Policy, also issued in 2010. Credits: NASA/JPL

Engineers and designers have also added a suite of cameras and a microphone providing data onboard computers will analysis during descent and landing of the rover. This will help the spacecraft land in a safe zone and capture the sounds and imagery of the entry, descent, and landing as never before. We expect this data to eventually make for a thrilling video and improve the chances of future Mars missions. 

“As it is descending, the spacecraft can tell whether it is headed for one of the unsafe zones and divert to safe ground nearby,” said Chen. “With this capability, we can now consider landing areas with unsafe zones that previously would have disqualified the whole area. Also, we can land closer to a specific science destination, for less driving after landing.”

“Nobody has ever seen what a parachute looks like as it is opening in the Martian atmosphere,” said JPL’s David Gruel, assistant flight system manager for the Mars 2020 mission. “So this will provide valuable engineering information.”

“This will be a great opportunity for the public to hear the sounds of Mars for the first time, and it could also provide useful engineering information,” said Mars 2020 Deputy Project Manager Matt Wallace of JPL.

Mars 2020 rover goes forward

As the optimist said, “So far, so good.” NASA has completed stage three of a four-stage approval process needed for the Mars 2020 rover to go for launch. Now engineers and designers get to work assembling the final systems of NASA’s next Mars rover. Fortunately, they have already done a lot of the work during the building of Curiosity, and even have some spare parts and hardware that should work just fine laying around somewhere in the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. 

“Since Mars 2020 is leveraging the design and some spare hardware from Curiosity, a significant amount of the mission’s heritage components have already been built during Phases A and B,” said George Tahu, Mars 2020 program executive at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “With the KDP to enter Phase C completed, the project is proceeding with final design and construction of the new systems, as well as the rest of the heritage elements for the mission.”

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NASA Selects US Aerospace Firms to Study Mars Orbiter Concepts

5 US companies to conduct concept studies for support missions to colonize Mars 

NASA has selected 5 major US aerospace firms to help develop and lead the way to Mars during the next phase of mankind’s journey to the stars. Credits: NASA/journeytomars

Space news (Journey to Mars: Mars Orbiter Mission; support mission concept studies) – NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California – 

NASA’s plans to send astronauts to explore and one day live on Mars turned a page today with the announcement of the selection of five US aerospace firms to study possible mission concepts. The Boeing Company, Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems, Orbital ATK, and Space Systems will each conduct four months of research on ways a new Mars orbiter mission would benefit communications, imaging ability, and operational capabilities of future manned missions to the Red Planet. 

Mars colonists will need to find local sources of water in order to survive on the Red Planet. The canyon system seen here is Valles Marineris, one of the largest found in the solar system, and a possible source of future water for any mission to Mars. Blue dots on this map indicate sites of recurring slope lineae (RSL) in part of the Valles Marineris canyon network on Mars. RSL are seasonal dark streaks regarded as the strongest evidence for the possibility of liquid water on the surface of modern Mars. The area mapped here has the highest density of known RSL on the Red Planet. Credits: NASA/JPL

“We’re excited to continue planning for the next decade of Mars exploration,” said Geoffrey Yoder, acting associate administrator for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington. 

Mars colonists will have to deal with severe winds, extreme dust storms, and other environmental phenomena that will make adapting to life on the Red Planet an adventure unlike any undertaken by mankind. Miniature wind vortices called Martian dust devils will be a common occurrence. Spinning columns of rising air heated by the warm surface of Mars, lasting just a few minutes, dust devils full of loose red-colored dust abound. Credits: NASA/JPL/MRO

Partners in making history

NASA is actively seeking partnerships in their desire to send manned missions to Mars as early as the 2030s. The Mars Exploration Program Analysis Group published a report a few months ago on the science objectives proposed for the manned Journey to Mars missions by the scientific community and their feasibility. People and firms interested in contributing to the Journey to Mars should contact NASA to see how they can take part. 

NASA has suspended the 2016 launch of InSight Mars lander following the unsuccessful attempts to repair a leak in a section of the prime instrument in the science load. Expectations are for the InSight Mars lander to help lead the way for future missions and colonists heading to the Red Planet. Credits: NASA/JPL

NASA’s Journey to Mars is managed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California under the direction of the agency’s Mars Exploration Program. This is a very ambitious space program expected to lead the way for mankind to one day travel to Mars and take steps to stay forever. Presently, it has two robotic rovers and three orbiting spacecraft exploring the Red Planet and future plans include the launch of the InSight lander in 2018 and the Mars 2020 rover, which is currently in development. 

This artist’s concept depicts the early Martian environment (left) as humans would like to see it– containing liquid water and a thicker atmosphere – versus the cold, dry, harsh environment seen at Mars now (right). NASA’s Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution is in orbit above the Red Planet studying its upper atmosphere, ionosphere, interactions with the sun and solar wind and habitability for future colonists. Credits: NASA/JPL

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