NASA selects instruments for upcoming 2020 Mars rover

(Preliminary sketches of the 2020 rover – Photo Credit: NASA/JPL – Caltech)

In 2020, NASA will send a new rover on a mission to Mars, and the space agency have now revealed the seven carefully-selected instruments which will be used to conduct unprecedented science and exploration investigations on the Red Planet. 

The 2020 Mars rover will be based on the highly successful Mars Science Laboratory rover, Curiosity, which landed on the planet in 2012. NASA plan to re-use the basic engineering of Curiosity to send the new rover to Mars, however the 2020 vehicle will have different objectives to Curiosity, therefore it will feature brand new science instruments that have been carefully selected for its mission.

The new rover will carry more sophisticated, upgraded hardware and new instruments to conduct geological assessments of the rover’s landing site. The technology will also be used to determine the potential habitability of the environment, and directly search for signs

(Curiosity’s most recent ‘selfie’ from the Martian surface – Photo Credit: NASA/JPL – Caltech/MSSS)

NASA announced the selected Mars 2020 rover instruments at the agency’s headquarters in Washington on July 31st. Managers made 7 selections out of 58 proposals which were received around 5 months ago from researchers and engineers worldwide. The selected proposals will cost approximately $130 million to develop.

“Today we take another important step on our journey to Mars,” said NASA Administrator Charles Bolden.” While getting to and landing on Mars is hard, Curiosity was an iconic example of how our robotic scientific explorers are paving the way for humans to pioneer Mars and beyond. Mars exploration will be this generation’s legacy, and the Mars 2020 rover will be another critical step on humans’ journey to the Red Planet.”

The selected payload proposals for the 2020 rover are:

• Mastcam-Z – an advanced camera system with panoramic and stereoscopic imaging capabilities. It will also have the ability to zoom and determine the mineralogy of the Martian surface. It will assist with general rover operations.
• SuperCam – an instrument that can provide imaging, chemical composition analysis, and mineralogy. The instrument will also be able to detect the presence of organic compounds in rocks and regolith from a distance.
• Planetary Instrument for X-ray Lithochemistry (PIXL) – This is an X-ray fluorescence spectrometer that will contain an imager with high resolution to determine the fine scale elemental composition of surface materials. PIXL will provide capabilities that permit a more detailed detection and analysis of Martian chemical elements than ever before.
• Scanning Habitable Environments with Raman & Luminescence for Organics and Chemicals (SHERLOC) – a spectrometer that will provide fine-scale imaging and uses an ultraviolet laser to determine fine-scale mineralogy and detect organic compounds. SHERLOC will be the first UV Raman spectrometer to fly to the surface of Mars and will provide complementary measurements with other instruments in the payload.
• The Mars Oxygen ISRU Experiment (MOXIE) – an exploration technology investigation that will produce oxygen from atmospheric carbon dioxide.
• Mars Environmental Dynamics Analyzer (MEDA) – a set of sensors that will provide measurements of temperature, wind speed and direction, pressure, relative humidity and dust size and shape.
• The Radar Imager for Mars’ Subsurface Exploration (RIMFAX) – a ground-penetrating radar that will provide centimeter-scale resolution of the geologic structure of the subsurface.

“The Mars 2020 rover, with these new advanced scientific instruments, including those from our international partners, holds the promise to unlock more mysteries of Mars’ past as revealed in the geological record,” said John Grunsfeld, astronaut and associate administrator of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate. “This mission will further our search for life in the universe and also offer opportunities to advance new capabilities in exploration technology.”

(Mars – Mars Global Surveyor/NASA/JPL) 

Scientists will use the Mars 2020 rover to identify and collect rock and soil samples. These will be stored on the vehicle for return to Earth by a future mission.

The Mars 2020 rover will also help advance our knowledge of how future human explorers could utilise natural resources available on the Martian surface. The ability to live off the Martian land could transform future missions on the planet.

Designers of future human expeditions can use information gathered by the new rover to understand the hazards posed by Martian dust. The vehicle will also test technology that can process carbon dioxide into oxygen. These experiments will help engineers learn how to use the Martian environment to produce oxygen for human respiration and oxidizer for rocket fuel.

“The 2020 rover will help answer questions about the Martian environment that astronauts will face and test technologies they need before landing on, exploring and returning from the Red Planet,” said William Gerstenmaier, associate administrator for the Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate.

“Mars has resources needed to help sustain life, which can reduce the amount of supplies that human missions will need to carry. Better understanding the Martian dust and weather will be valuable data for planning human Mars missions. Testing ways to extract these resources and understand the environment will help make the pioneering of Mars feasible” Gerstenmaier added.

(An artist concept image of where the seven carefully-selected instruments will be located on the 2020 rover – Photo Credit: NASA)

“We are excited that NASA’s Space Technology Program is partnered with Human Exploration and the Mars 2020 Rover Team to demonstrate our abilities to harvest the Mars atmosphere and convert its abundant carbon dioxide to pure oxygen,” said James Reuther, deputy associate administrator for programs for the Space Technology Mission Directorate. “This technology demonstration will pave the way for more affordable human missions to Mars where oxygen is needed for life support and rocket propulsion.”

The instruments will be developed and placed on a rover similar to Curiosity. The vehicle will also use Curiosity’s highly successful landing system and rover chassis design to deliver the rover, and its new experiments, to Mars. Reusing technology will ensure that mission costs and risks are reduced as much as possible, while still delivering a highly capable rover.

Curiosity recently completed a Martian year on the surface, 687 Earth days, having accomplished the mission’s main goal of determining whether Mars once offered environmental conditions favourable for microbial life. NASA’s 10 year old Opportunity rover has also recently set the off-Earth driving record, a record that Curiosity will attempt to break during its time on the Red Planet.