Next NASA rover to head to Mars in 2020
DEC 05, 2012
DOI: 10.1063/PT.5.026586
Space.com : Yesterday at the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco, John Grunsfeld, head of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, announced that NASA plans to launch its next Mars rover in 2020. To save on cost, the chassis and landing system of the new rover will be based heavily on that of Curiosity , which landed on the red planet in August. The billion-dollar mission will be the next step toward NASA’s eventual goal of bringing back actual samples from Mars, writes Mike Wall for Space.com. “With this next mission, we’re ensuring America remains the world leader in the exploration of the Red Planet, while taking another significant step toward sending humans there in the 2030s,” said NASA administrator Charles Bolden.
© 2012 American Institute of Physics
