{"id":19313,"date":"2016-07-19T00:59:52","date_gmt":"2016-07-18T16:59:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/nasa-seeks-five-concepts-for-2022-mars-orbiter-and-gives-go-ahead-for-2020-rover\/"},"modified":"2016-07-19T00:59:52","modified_gmt":"2016-07-18T16:59:52","slug":"nasa-seeks-five-concepts-for-2022-mars-orbiter-and-gives-go-ahead-for-2020-rover","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/nasa-seeks-five-concepts-for-2022-mars-orbiter-and-gives-go-ahead-for-2020-rover\/","title":{"rendered":"NASA seeks five concepts for 2022 Mars orbiter and gives go-ahead for 2020 rover"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Mars
An artist\u2019s conception shows NASA\u2019s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter relaying data. (Credit: NASA \/ JPL-Caltech)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

NASA says it\u2019s selected five aerospace companies, including Boeing, to conduct concept studies for a Mars telecommunications orbiter that\u2019s likely to launch in 2022. It\u2019s also given the formal go-ahead for the final design of its long-planned 2020 Mars rover.<\/p>\n

In addition to Boeing, the companies contracted for the four-month concept studies include Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Northrop Grumman, Orbital ATK and Space Systems\/Loral. The concept studies will be managed by NASA\u2019s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re excited to continue planning for the next decade of Mars exploration,\u201d Geoffrey Yoder, NASA\u2019s acting associate administrator for science, said in today\u2019s announcement of the contracts.<\/p>\n

The orbiter mission would provide advanced telecommunication capabilities as well as global high-resolution imaging of Mars. NASA\u2019s move follows up on recommendations made by the Mars Exploration Program Analysis Group.<\/p>\n

NASA currently relays data from the Opportunity and Curiosity rovers on Mars via the Mars Odyssey orbiter and the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter \u2013 which were launched in 2001 and 2005 respectively.<\/p>\n

The space agency has the MAVEN orbiter on standby to serve as a relay in case of an emergency, but it really wants a new spacecraft that takes advantage of solar electric propulsion as well as advances in imaging and communication technology.<\/p>\n

Earlier this week, NASA said it\u2019s ready to proceed with final design and fabrication of an advanced rover that would be launched in the summer of 2020 and land on Mars in February 2021. The rover\u2019s mission will be to probe Martian rocks for evidence of past life, and collect samples to be stored up and potentially returned to Earth.<\/p>\n

\"2020
This schematic comes from computer-assisted-design work on NASA\u2019s 2020 Mars rover. (Credit: NASA \/ JPL-Caltech)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The rover for the $1.5 billion Mars 2020 mission will be built on the same basic framework used for Curiosity, but it will include an entirely new subsystem for sample collection and storage: A coring drill on the rover\u2019s robotic arm would extract samples of soil and ground-up rock. Those samples would be placed in about 30 storage tubes, which would be deposited at select locations for retrieval during a follow-up mission.<\/p>\n

The rover would also have a suite of cameras and a microphone to record the sights and sounds of the spacecraft\u2019s entry, descent and landing. \u201cThis will be a great opportunity for the public to hear the sounds of Mars for the first time,\u201d Mars 2020 deputy project manager Matt Wallace said in a news release.<\/p>\n

Technically speaking, the rover has just passed the third of four key decision points on the way to launch, known as Phase C or KDP-C. It still has to go through the fourth milestone, KDP-D, which clears the way for system assembly, testing and launch.<\/p>\n

The long-term goal of NASA\u2019s Mars exploration program is to assess whether the Red Planet ever harbored life, and to send astronauts to Mars and its moons beginning in the 2030s.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An artist\u2019s conception shows NASA\u2019s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter relaying data. (Credit: NASA \/ JPL-Caltech) NASA says it\u2019s selected five aerospace companies, including Boeing, to conduct concept studies for a Mars telecommunications orbiter that\u2019s likely to launch in 2022. It\u2019s also given the formal go-ahead for the final design of its long-planned 2020 Mars rover. In […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4704,670,367,190],"class_list":["post-19313","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-2020-mars-rover","tag-boeing","tag-mars","tag-nasa"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19313"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19313"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19313\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19313"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19313"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19313"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}