Seeking Signs of Life: The Mars 2020 Rover
Abstract
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) announced plans to send a rover to Mars in the year 2020. With NASA's goals for Mars now focused on determining the habitability of environments and detecting signs of past life, this mission constitutes a logical next step in the exploration of Mars. The Mars 2020 Science Definition Team's (SDT) suggested science objectives of the mission are to: 1) explore an astrobiologically relevant ancient environment on Mars to decipher its geological processes and history, including the assessment of past habitability; 2) assess the biosignature preservation potential within the selected geological environment and search for potential biosignatures; 3) demonstrate significant technical progress towards the future return of scientifically selected, well-documented samples to Earth; and 4) provide an opportunity for contributed human exploration or space technology Program participation, compatible with the science payload and within the mission's payload capacity. Instruments designed for detecting signs of past life and caching samples on Mars are among those considered by the Science Definition Team as the highest priority for science on the 2020 rover. This presentation will detail NASA's response to the SDT's report (released July 2013) in formulating the 2020 mission.
- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2013
- Bibcode:
- 2013AGUFM.P44B..02S
- Keywords:
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- 6225 PLANETARY SCIENCES: SOLAR SYSTEM OBJECTS Mars;
- 5200 PLANETARY SCIENCES: ASTROBIOLOGY;
- 5400 PLANETARY SCIENCES: SOLID SURFACE PLANETS