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NASA selects Mars 2020 rover landing site

David Szondy November 19, 2018

After five years, NASA's Mars 2020 rover mission has a landing site penciled in. From a list of 60 candidate sites, the space agency has chosen Jezero Crater as the touchdown point for the nuclear-powered unmanned explorer designed to seek out places where life might once have existed.

Artist's impression of the Mars 2020 rover

Space

Mars 2020 parachute sets new inflation speed record

David Szondy October 29, 2018

NASA's Mars 2020 mission has passed a major milestone with the supersonic parachute that will deliver it to the surface of the Red Planet. In the upper reaches of the stratosphere it deployed to full inflation in less than 0.4 seconds – a record for a parachute that size.

High-definition image taken during the third and final test flight of the ASPIRE payload

Space

Mars 2020 rover goes nuclear with delivery of new electrical generator

David Szondy August 7, 2018

NASA's Mars 2020 rover has received its nuclear power plant. The Multi-Mission Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator (MMRTG) unit will provide the robotic spacecraft with 125 W of electricity to operate the drive motors and power the onboard systems.

Space

Airbus tapped to design Fetch Mars rover

David Szondy July 8, 2018

ESA is working on a new robotic rover to retrieve containers of Martian rock and soil left behind by NASA's Mars 2020 rover. ESA has now awarded the initial £3.9 million (US$5.2 million) contract to design the new Fetch rover to Airbus, which will undertake the study in Stevenage, England.

Fetch is a simple rover designed to collect sample tubes from a previous missions for return ...

Space

Cracks appear in heat shield, but NASA's Mars 2020 mission remains on track

Nick Lavars April 29, 2018

NASA’s Mars 2020 lander has experienced a minor hiccup during preparations for its mission to the Red Planet, with NASA revealing that structural testing has resulted in a fracture to the spacecraft’s heat shield.

Artist's impression of NASA's Mars 2020 lander entering the Martian atmosphere

Space

NASA begins Mars 2020 spacecraft pre-launch assembly

David Szondy March 15, 2018

NASA is ramping up for the Mars 2020 mission's July 2020 launch as the space agency begins the Assembly, Test, and Launch Operations (ATLO) phase of the project at the Spacecraft Assembly Facility High Bay 1 at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California.

Space

NASA sends piece of Mars back to Mars

David Szondy February 14, 2018

NASA is sending a piece of Mars back to the Red Planet on the Mars 2020 rover mission. The space agency's including a meteorite that had its origin on Mars may seem odd, but the purpose is completely practical as the sample will act as a calibration target for one of the mission's main instruments.

Rohit Bhartia of NASA's Mars 2020 mission holds a slice of a meteorite scientists have determined ...

Space

NASA conducts successful test for Mars 2020 parachute system

Michael Irving November 14, 2017

NASA's Mars 2020 mission is well into the testing phase, and now the organization has successfully conducted the first test of a supersonic parachute that will (hopefully) allow the craft to safely touchdown on Mars in early 2021.

NASA has successfully conducted the first test of the parachute system for the Mars 2020 mission

Space

Mars 2020 Rover will carry a record number of eyes

David Szondy November 3, 2017

When NASA's Mars 2020 mission sets down on the Red Planet in three years, it will have a record number of cameras aboard. The unmanned, nuclear-powered rover will carry 23 cameras that will have higher resolution more 3D capability, and larger bandwidth than any previous Mars explorer.

A selection of the 23 cameras on NASA's 2020 Mars rover

Space

How vanadium could be a beacon for Martian life

Michael Franco September 22, 2017

If all goes according to plan, in 2020 NASA will launch a rover to Mars to look for signs of past or present life. To help astrobiologists tease out biological material from other deceiving compounds in the planet's regolith, researchers suggest focussing efforts on finding the element vanadium.

An artist's rendering of the Mars 2020 rover on the surface of the Red Planet