NASA team outlines plan for next Mars rover

Science : After six months of work, a team set up by NASA’s Science Mission Directorate and led by John Mustard of Brown University in Rhode Island has unveiled its plan for the next NASA rover to be sent to Mars. The new rover would basically be a souped-up version of Curiosity, the most recent rover landed on the planet. In addition to wide-angle cameras, the team proposes including a camera for detailed closeups and fine-scale imaging. Other suggested instruments would allow the rover to conduct fine-scale mineralogy studies, analyze chemicals, detect organic carbon, and drill rocks and store at least 31 samples for later collection. Because the plan says the rover’s technological design should be modeled on that of Curiosity, the cost of the new vehicle should be about $1 billion less than Curiosity, since much of its cost was in the development of new technologies. Whether the rover will actually be added to NASA’s budget is still uncertain because of financial constraints on the agency, but the plan anticipates a 2020 launch.