NASA is gearing up to send its next rover to Mars , with the promise it can let out if there was ever sprightliness on the Red Planet .
presently , the vehicle is simply called the Mars 2020 bird of passage , based on the year it will launch , with an arrival scheduled for former 2021 . It ’ll be given a proper name in the future .
The rover looks similar to its precursor , Curiosity , which is presently on the surface of the Red Planet . But it will comport a new cortege of instrument that will tell us more about living on Mars than ever before .
" Whether animation ever existed beyond Earth is one of the grand questions humans seek to answer , " Ken Farley of NASA ’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California , and Mars 2020 ’s project scientist , say in astatement . " What we learn from the sample collected during this mission has the potential to address whether we ’re alone in the universe . "
The suite of instrument on control board the rover will admit a practice session that will collect sample distribution of stone . A miniature weapon will seal these samples in small containers , with the approximation that a next mission will collect them from the surface and come back them to Earth so they can be studied .
To await for biosignatures at a microbic scale leaf , the rover has an X - re spectrometer to place spots as little as a texture of table table salt . An ultraviolet laser will be used to notice the glow from carbon paper atoms , while a ground - penetrating radar will wait under the surface of Mars for sign of water supply and trash up to 10 meters ( 33 feet ) deep .
It ’ll also have an impressive23 cameras , compared to Curiosity ’s 17 . This will get it image the surface of the Red Planet like never before .
It ’s the life - find aspect of the mission that is most exciting , though . The deputation wo n’t be looking for current life per se , but it will hopefully tell us more about ancient life on Mars .
Three position arecurrently being consideredfor the wanderer to explore , each with features – from spicy bounce to ancient lakebeds – that make them interesting . Where it lands , the Mars 2020 roamer will then leave up to 40 rock samples behind , quick to be picked up by a future sample return mission and taken back to Earth .
This is n’t the only missionary station go to Mars in the near future . NASA ’s Insight mission is scheduled to launch in 2018 , while Mars 2020 will be fall in on the surface by ESA’sExoMars scouter , which will set down at a like time . It , too , will look for signs of life . One mode or another , we ’re get close to an answer .
