Tag Archives: Mars 2020

Mars 2020: Supersonic parachute deployment test

Posted on November 14, 2017 by rburnham

Landing on Mars is difficult and not always successful. Well-designed advance testing helps. An ambitious NASA Mars rover mission set to launch in 2020 will rely on a special parachute to slow the spacecraft down as it enters the Martian … Continue reading →

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HiRISE: Candidate landing site for 2020 mission

Posted on November 8, 2017 by rburnham

Candidate landing site for 2020 mission in northeast Syrtis Major region. Beautiful Mars series.

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Next Mars rover will have 23 eyes

Posted on November 1, 2017 by rburnham

When NASA’s Mars Pathfinder touched down in 1997, it had five cameras: two on a mast that popped up from the lander, and three on NASA’s first rover, Sojourner. Since then, camera technology has taken a quantum leap. Photo sensors … Continue reading →

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HiRISE: Mars 2020 candidate landing site in NE Syrtis Major

Posted on October 25, 2017 by rburnham

A candidate landing site for 2020 mission in the northeast Syrtis Major region. Beautiful Mars series.

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Vanadium: key element in search for Mars biosignatures?

Posted on September 23, 2017 by rburnham

The search for biology on neighbor planet Mars won’t play out like a Hollywood movie starring little green men. Rather, many scientists agree if there was life on the Red Planet, it probably will present itself as fossilized bacteria. To … Continue reading →

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HiRISE digital terrain model for Jezero Crater candidate landing site

Posted on August 3, 2017 by rburnham

The HiRISE camera team has released a digital terrain model (DTM) for Jezero Crater, one of the candidate landing sites for NASA’s Mars 2020 rover. Information about HiRISE DTMs here; all available DTMs here.

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A geological history of NE Syrtis Major

Posted on April 21, 2017 by rburnham

Brown University researchers have published the most detailed geological history to date for a region of Mars known as Northeast Syrtis Major, a spot high on NASA’s list of potential landing sites for its next Mars rover to be launched … Continue reading →

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Mars 2020 rover landing site short list: Columbia Hills, Jezero Crater, Northeast Syrtis Major

Posted on February 13, 2017 by rburnham

Participants in a landing site workshop for NASA’s upcoming Mars 2020 mission have recommended three locations on the Red Planet for further evaluation. The three potential landing sites for NASA’s next Mars rover include Northeast Syrtis (a very ancient portion … Continue reading →

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MRO: Looking for landing sites

Posted on February 9, 2017 by rburnham

At an international workshop this week about where NASA’s next Mars rover should land, most of the information comes from a prolific spacecraft that’s been orbiting Mars since 2006. Observations by NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) provide the basis for … Continue reading →

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NASA’s $2.4-billion plan to steal a rock from Mars

Posted on January 19, 2017 by rburnham

Ed. note: The following is an except from a story in Nature; full story here. Adam Steltzner rose to engineering stardom in 2012, when NASA’s Curiosity rover plummeted to a perfect landing on Mars, thanks to a daring, fiery manoeuvre … Continue reading →

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