NASA Mars 2020 News, Update: Scientists Identify Three Potential Landing Sites for Upcoming Rover Mission
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has announced the three potential landing sites for the Mars 2020 Rover mission: Columbia Hills, Northeast Syrtis and Jezero crater. These locations will be subjected to further evaluation before the Mars Exploration Program's new rover launches in three years' time.
Last week, NASA conducted the third landing site workshop for the Mars 2020 Rover mission in which scientists were able to narrow down the list of possible locations to three. According to Engadget, the group referred to images and data sent by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter before voting on the locations. Jezero crater reportedly received the most votes, followed by Northeast Syrtis.
According to the official Mars 2020 Rover mission website, Columbia Hills, located inside Gusev crater, is the location of an ancient hot spring that the Sprit Rover previously discovered. The rover was able to find signs of water but since it stopped working in 2010, there has been no new information about this particular location. As such, there is merit in further exploring the range of low hills.
Meanwhile, Northeast Syrtis is an ancient portion of Mars' surface that is believed to have once had volcanic activity. It is said that underground heat sources once made hot springs flow and surface ice melt and as such, microbes could have flourished.
Lastly, Jezero crater used to be the location of an ancient Martian lake that was found to have been drained in at least two occasions. Scientists speculate that these instances could have led to the conception of microbial life, which could be proven by analyzing the lakebed sediments.
Once the location has been finalized, the Mars 2020 Rover mission's goal is to "conduct geological assessments of its landing site on Mars, determine the habitability of the environment, search for signs of ancient Martian life and assess the natural resources and hazards for future human explorers."
The Mars 2020 Rover is based on the Curiosity Rover but has been enhanced in order to be able to land in more challenging terrains. It will also be equipped with a new subsystem to collect rocks and soil samples that will potentially be brought back to Earth by a future sample retrieval mission.
Mars 2020 is scheduled for July 2020 with the rover aboard the Atlas V 541 rocket that will launch from Space Launch Complex 41 at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.
