NASA ready to build Mars 2020 rover
NASA is ready to wrap up the final design and begin building the next Mars rover, which is set to search, for the first time, for signs of past life on the planet.
The space agency announced Friday that plans are moving ahead for the robotic rover to launch in the summer of 2020 and land on Mars in February 2021.
The new rover also is designed to test the planet for usable resources, such as oxygen, that will be needed for future missions to Mars that will include humans.
The Mars Curiosity rover, which has been working on the Red Planet since August 2012, has been searching for evidence that the planet could have ever sustained life – even in microbial form.
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