Tag Archives: Mars 2020

Watch Mars 2020 rover assembly via JPL webcam

Posted on June 7, 2019 by rburnham

A newly installed webcam offers the public a live, bird’s-eye view of NASA’s Mars 2020 rover as it takes shape at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. You can watch as JPL engineers and technicians assemble and test the … Continue reading →

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Mars 2020 helicopter enters final testing phase

Posted on June 6, 2019 by rburnham

NASA’s Mars Helicopter flight demonstration project has passed a number of key tests with flying colors. In 2021, the small, autonomous helicopter will be the first vehicle in history to attempt to establish the viability of heavier-than-air vehicles flying on … Continue reading →

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Mars 2020 rover gets HD eyes

Posted on May 31, 2019 by rburnham

One of the first operations the Mars 2020 rover will perform after touching down on the Red Planet’s Jezero Crater on Feb. 18, 2021, will be to raise its remote sensing mast (RSM), which carries important optics and instrumentation. In … Continue reading →

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Mars 2020 drops in on Death Valley

Posted on May 24, 2019 by rburnham

On a test flight in Death Valley, California, an Airbus helicopter carried an engineering model of the Lander Vision System (LVS) that will help guide NASA’s next Mars mission to a safe touchdown on the Red Planet. During the flight … Continue reading →

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Mars 2020 gets a dose of space — on Earth

Posted on May 24, 2019 by rburnham

NASA’s Mars 2020 spacecraft has completed acoustic and thermal vacuum (TVAC) testing at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. The acoustic test of the spacecraft that will carry the Mars 2020 rover to a soft touchdown in Jezero Crater … Continue reading →

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Explosive volcanism likely made olivine-rich deposit near 2020 rover landing site

Posted on May 23, 2019 by rburnham

Ashfall from ancient volcanic explosions is the likely source of a strange mineral deposit near the landing site for NASA’s next Mars rover, a new study finds. The research, published in the journal Geology, could help scientists assemble a timeline … Continue reading →

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Send your name to Mars with NASA’s 2020 rover

Posted on May 21, 2019 by rburnham

Although it will be years before the first humans set foot on Mars, NASA is giving the public an opportunity to send their names – etched on microchips – to the Red Planet with NASA’s Mars 2020 rover, which represents … Continue reading →

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Hunting for biosignatures in volcanic rocks

Posted on May 20, 2019 by rburnham

[Editor’s note: From a paper by Magnus Ivarsson, Therese Sallstedt, and Diana-Thean Carlsson recently published in Frontiers in Earth Science.] Morphological Biosignatures in Volcanic Rocks – Applications for Life Detection on Mars The exploration of Mars is largely based on comparisons with … Continue reading →

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Mars 2020 is coming together

Posted on May 20, 2019 by rburnham

An engineer inspects the completed spacecraft that will carry NASA’s next Mars rover to the Red Planet, prior to a test in the Space Simulator Facility at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. From the top down, and suspended … Continue reading →

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Mars 2020 can now phone home

Posted on May 6, 2019 by rburnham

Mars 2020 engineers and technicians prepare the high-gain antenna for installation on the rover’s equipment deck. The antenna is articulated so it can point itself directly at Earth to uplink or downlink data. The image was taken on April 19, … Continue reading →

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