Topic: Mars 2020 Rover

NASA Engineers install Legs, Wheels on Mars 2020 Rover

June 22, 2019 |

Pasadena, CA – Engineers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, install the starboard legs and wheels, otherwise known as the mobility suspension, on the Mars 2020 rover on June 13th, 2019. They installed the port suspension later that day.

“Now that’s a Mars rover,” said David Gruel, the Mars 2020 assembly, test, and launch operations manager at JPL. “With the suspension on, not only does it look like a rover, but we have almost all our big-ticket items for integration in our rearview mirror – if our rover had one.”

In this image, taken on June 13th, 2019, engineers at JPL install the starboard legs and wheels – otherwise known as the mobility suspension – on the Mars 2020 rover. (NASA/JPL-Caltech)

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NASA selects Jezero Crater as Mars 2020 Rover Landing Site

November 20, 2018 |

NASA Headquarters

Washington, D.C. – NASA has chosen Jezero Crater as the landing site for its upcoming Mars 2020 rover mission after a five-year search, during which details of more than 60 candidate locations on the Red Planet were scrutinized and debated by the mission team and the planetary science community.

The rover mission is scheduled to launch in July 2020 as NASA’s next step in exploration of the Red Planet. It will not only seek signs of ancient habitable conditions – and past microbial life – but the rover also will collect rock and soil samples and store them in a cache on the planet’s surface.

On ancient Mars, water carved channels and transported sediments to form fans and deltas within lake basins. Examination of spectral data acquired from orbit show that some of these sediments have minerals that indicate chemical alteration by water. Here in Jezero Crater delta, sediments contain clays and carbonates. (NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS/JHU-APL)

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NASA designs new Rover for 2020 Mission to Mars

November 29, 2017 |

Written by Andrew Good
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Pasadena, CA – In just a few years, NASA’s next Mars rover mission will be flying to the Red Planet.

At a glance, it looks a lot like its predecessor, the Curiosity Mars rover. But there’s no doubt it’s a souped-up science machine: It has seven new instruments, redesigned wheels and more autonomy. A drill will capture rock cores, while a caching system with a miniature robotic arm will seal up these samples.

Then, they’ll be deposited on the Martian surface for possible pickup by a future mission.

This artist’s rendition depicts NASA’s Mars 2020 rover studying a Mars rock outrcrop. The mission will not only seek out and study an area likely to have been habitable in the distant past, but it will take the next, bold step in robotic exploration of the Red Planet by seeking signs of past microbial life itself. (NASA/JPL-Caltech)

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Three possible landing sites selected for NASA’s 2020 Mars Rover

February 14, 2017 |

Written by DC Agle
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Pasadena, CA – Participants in a landing site workshop for NASA’s upcoming Mars 2020 mission have recommended three locations on the Red Planet for further evaluation.

The three potential landing sites for NASA’s next Mars rover include Northeast Syrtis (a very ancient portion of Mars’ surface), Jezero crater, (once home to an ancient Martian lake), and Columbia Hills (potentially home to an ancient hot spring, explored by NASA’s Spirit rover).

Three potential landing sites for NASA’s next Mars rover. (NASA)

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NASA tests Lander Vision System for 2020 Mars Rover

October 5, 2016 |

Written by Leslie Williams
NASA Armstrong Flight Research Center

Palmdale, CA – NASA tested new “eyes” for its next Mars rover mission on a rocket built by Masten Space Systems in Mojave, California, thanks in part to NASA’s Flight Opportunities Program, or FOP.

The agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, is leading development of the Mars 2020 rover and its Lander Vision System, or LVS. In 2014, the prototype vision system launched 1,066 feet (325 meters) into the air aboard Masten’s rocket-powered “Xombie” test platform and helped guide the rocket to a precise landing at a predesignated target. LVS flew as part of a larger system of experimental landing technologies called the Autonomous Descent and Ascent Powered-flight Testbed, or ADAPT.

NASA’s Mars 2020 rover will use a landing system nearly identical to the 2012 landing of Curiosity (depicted in this artist’s concept) but with added precision from the Lander Vision System. (NASA/JPL-Caltech)

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