The Mars 2020 rover mission is a Mars rover mission by NASA's Mars Exploration Program with a planned launch in 2020.[1] It is intended to investigate an astrobiologically relevant ancient environment on Mars, investigate its surface geological processes and history, including the assessment of its past habitability, the possibility of extant life on Mars, and potential for preservation of biosignatures within accessible geological materials
The proposed 2020 rover mission is part of NASA's Mars Exploration Program, a long-term effort of robotic exploration of the red planet. Designed to advance high-priority science goals for Mars exploration, the mission would address key questions about the potential for life on Mars. The mission would also provide opportunities to gather knowledge and demonstrate technologies that address the challenges of future human expeditions to Mars.
The mission would take advantage of a favorable launch opportunity in 2020 when Earth and Mars are in advantageous positions in their orbits for a Mars landing. That means that it would take less power to get to Mars relative to other times when Earth and Mars are in different positions in their orbits around the sun. The highly capable rover would be based on NASA's successful Mars Science Laboratory mission architecture, including its Curiosity rover and proven landing system, to keep mission costs and risks as low as possible.
The budget for this mission is contingent on future appropriations. The project will assess options for infusing new capabilities through investments by NASA's Space Technology Program, Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate, and contributions from international partners.
Following established processes of NASA's Science Mission Directorate, the science planning process began with the establishment of a science definition team, which was tasked to outline the mission's objectives and the strategies to achieve them, including developing a realistic surface operations scenario, suggestions for threshold science measurements that would meet the proposed objectives, and a proof-of-concept instrument suite. NASA then openly competed the opportunity for the mission's specific payload and science instruments. NASA selected seven science instruments. On the basis of this selection, the Mars 2020 rover would study diverse rocks and soils to understand past habitable conditions on Mars and to seek signs of ancient microbial life, monitor weather and dust in the Martian atmosphere, and test the ability to extract oxygen from the Red Planet's carbon-dioxide atmosphere to prepare for future human exploration. Rock-studying instruments would assist scientists in understanding which samples would be most promising for the Mars 2020 rover to core, collect, and cache (store).