Tag Archives: M2020

Helicopter attached to Mars 2020 rover

Posted on August 29, 2019 by rburnham

Engineers attached NASA’s Mars Helicopter, which will be the first aircraft to fly on another planet, to the belly of the Mars 2020 rover today in the High Bay 1 clean room at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. … Continue reading →

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Hey, students! The Mars 2020 rover needs a great name

Posted on August 28, 2019 by rburnham

Red rover, red rover, send a name for Mars 2020 right over! NASA is recruiting help from students nationwide to find a name for its next Mars rover mission. Starting Tuesday, Aug. 27, K-12 students in U.S. public, private and … Continue reading →

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Australian Outback as testbed for Mars

Posted on August 23, 2019 by rburnham

This week, scientists from NASA’s upcoming Mars 2020 mission joined their counterparts from the joint European-Russian ExoMars mission in an expedition to the Australian Outback, one of the most remote, arid regions on the planet. Both teams came to hone … Continue reading →

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Mars 2020 rover gets its toolkit

Posted on August 15, 2019 by rburnham

The bit carousel – a mechanism that will play a key role in the acquisition, containment and eventual return to Earth of humanity’s first samples from another planet – has been incorporated into NASA’s Mars 2020 rover. “The bit carousel … Continue reading →

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Returning space samples links Apollo 11 and Mars 2020

Posted on August 13, 2019 by rburnham

On July 24, 1969, Apollo 11 command module Columbia splashed down in the Pacific, fulfilling President Kennedy’s goal to land a man on the Moon and return him safely to Earth. Among the mission’s many firsts was the acquisition and … Continue reading →

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THEMIS: Jezero Crater delta landing site

Posted on August 12, 2019 by rburnham

THEMIS Image of the Day, August 12, 2019. At the top of today’s VIS image is a delta deposit that was created by the flow from the rim channel into the crater. Deltas form when sediments settle out due to … Continue reading →

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Testing Mars 2020 rover’s vision

Posted on August 6, 2019 by rburnham

Equipped with visionary science instruments, the Mars 2020 rover underwent an “eye” exam after several cameras were installed on it. The rover contains an armada of imaging capabilities, from wide-angle landscape cameras to narrow-angle high-resolution zoom lens cameras. “We completed … Continue reading →

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MEDLI2 installation on Mars 2020 aeroshell begins

Posted on August 5, 2019 by rburnham

Hardware installed onto NASA’s Mars 2020 entry vehicle this week will help to increase the safety of future Mars landings. Charged with returning astronauts to the Moon by 2024, NASA’s Artemis lunar exploration plans will establish a sustained human presence … Continue reading →

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Mars courier: Bringing the samples to Earth

Posted on July 29, 2019 by rburnham

The first round-trip to the Red Planet will see a European orbiter bringing martian samples back to Earth. ESA is opening the door to industry to build the spacecraft that will deliver the precious rocks, dust and gas from Mars … Continue reading →

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Mars 2020 rover does biceps curls

Posted on July 26, 2019 by rburnham

The robotic arm on NASA’s Mars 2020 rover does not have deltoids, triceps or biceps, but it can still curl heavy weights with the best. In this time-lapse video, taken July 19, 2019, in the clean room of the Spacecraft … Continue reading →

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