NASA announced that it has selected 7 instruments out of a pool of 58 for the Mars 2020 rover. The Mars 2020 rover will be based on the design of the highly successful Curiosity, which is still operating on Mars, after it's landing 2 years ago.
From the NASA article:
- Scientists will use the Mars 2020 rover to identify and select a collection of rock and soil samples that will be stored for potential return to Earth by a future mission.
Here is the link to the NASA ARTICLE
2 comments:
Just curious... Will it be a what or a who that will retrieve the samples and return them to Earth?
I say we should ramp this thing up and do the "Who" thing!
btonym I know all of us would love to see a who, but unless the private sector wants it, well it will always be a what. The government (any government) has seen the economy of the robotic probe. If there's to be a living breathing explorer in a probes slot, then the industrial entity tapped for this endevour is going to have to either do it on the pittance the government allocates or be willing to invest it's own capital (which honestly I don't think we have seen to this extent yet)
No, I suspect that to pick up even several hundred pounds and transport them back to Earth will fall squarely upon the "shoulders" of the robotic errand boy of the future.
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