Tag: Mars 2020
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Helicopter to accompany NASA’s next Mars rover to Red Planet
Artist’s concept of the Mars Helicopter. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech A flying drone fitted with counter-rotating blades, on-board autonomy, and a lightweight carbon-fiber fuselage will ride to the Red Planet with NASA’s Mars 2020 mission, officials announced Friday. Promising results from recent ground testing and a funding boost provided by a new NASA budget passed by Congress…
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NASA to replace cracked heat shield in time for Mars 2020 rover launch
Artist’s concept of the Mars Science Laboratory, containing the Curiosity rover, entering the Martian atmosphere. The Mars 2020 mission will use the same heat shield design. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech NASA officials plan to replace the Mars 2020 rover’s heat shield after engineers discovered a crack in the structure earlier this month, but managers anticipate no delay…
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NASA to decide soon whether flying drone will launch with Mars 2020 rover
Artist’s illustration of the Mars helicopter drone that could travel to the red planet as soon as 2020. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech Testing of a lightweight robotic helicopter designed to fly in the alien atmosphere of Mars has produced encouraging results in recent months, and NASA officials expect to decide soon whether the aerial drone will accompany…
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NASA studies mission to return samples from Mars by end of 2020s
Artist’s concept of a Mars sample return concept, including the Mars Ascent Vehicle. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech NASA is examining options to launch a robotic mission as soon as 2026 to pick up rock specimens from the surface of Mars and bring them back to Earth, moving forward the timeline for a sample return mission as the…
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Curiosity rover shows new signs of wheel wear
Two of the raised treads, called grousers, on the left middle wheel of NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover broke during the first quarter of 2017, including the one seen partially detached at the top of the wheel in this image from the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) camera on the rover’s arm. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS Engineers…
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Trump budget blueprint focuses on deep space exploration, commercial partnerships
STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS & USED WITH PERMISSION Artist’s concept of NASA’s Asteroid Redirect Mission grabbing a piece of an asteroid, a project due for cancellation under President Trump’s budget proposal. Credit: NASA The Trump administration is proposing $19.1 billion for NASA in its fiscal 2018 budget blueprint, a 0.8 percent decrease from 2017 funding levels,…
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Scientists narrow list of landing sites for NASA’s next Mars rover
The delta inside Jezero Crater offers one of the best locations on Mars to look for the remains of ancient microbes, according to scientists. Jezero Crater received the most votes during a ranking of potential destinations for NASA’s Mars 2020 rover last week. This image combines information from two instruments on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter:…
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NASA books nuclear-certified Atlas 5 rocket for Mars 2020 rover launch
An Atlas 5-541 rocket, like this one, will launch the Mars 2020 rover. Credit: Pat Corkery/United Launch Alliance CAPE CANAVERAL — America’s next Mars rover, a $2.1 billion nuclear-powered vehicle to search for evidence that life once existed there, will be launched to the Red Planet in the summer of 2020 by a powerful Atlas…