The Mars 2020 mission announced in 2012 becomes more and more real as we approach the launch date. NASA has just unveiled its motorized robot responsible for exploring and sampling the red planet.
The US space program has accelerated in recent years, spurred by private companies such as SpaceX by Elon Musk or Blue Origin by Jeff Bezos who promise to reduce the costs inherent in space missions. The last rover dated launched on Mars by NASA, Curiosity, is still operational since its arrival in August 2012. The National Administration of Aeronautics and American Space presents today its successor, March 2020. The latter was built to study the presence of past life forms on the red planet and will collect soil samples using its 2-meter articulated arm. He will not be the only one to take the road to Mars in 2020, however: the Rosalind Franklin, ex-ExoMars, will be launched in July 2020 by the European Space Agency and the Russian state-owned enterprise Roscosmos, and the Chinese mission Huoxing 1 will launch its own rover soon after.
First successful attempt
If this last mission is to last three months once Martian soil is hit, the Rosalind Franklin will leave him for a period of seven months on the red planet. The March 2020 Rover passed its first test at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, near Los Angeles, last week, the site tells us Science Alert. At the same time, the vehicle was revealed to journalists. His mission ? “Look for signs of life”…]that will help us understand the geological and chemical context on the surface of Mars, ”said Matt Wallace, deputy chief of mission.
Find traces of life
The rover with 23 cameras, six wheels, a miniature nuclear reactor, articulated arms and a drill to split the rock will seek to detect the trace of ancient microbial life – several billion years ago, when the planet had surface water and a thicker atmosphere. Once collected, the samples are left on site, before a next mission comes to collect them. NASA talks about the year 2026.
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