NASA plans a "megamission" to find vestiges of life on Mars



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Spanish >> Science-Technology

Updated the 10/31/2018 – 09:27

Keywords: NASA, megamission, remains, Mars, life

Sediments of an ancient The lakes and rivers of the crater of Jezero can contain remnants of the past life. (NASA / JPL-Caltech / MSSS / JHU-APL)

California, 10/31/2018 (The People Online) – This is surely one of the most ambitious missions ever conceived with the goal of answer a question: has there ever been life on Mars? In July 2020, a new SUV, with a budget of $ 2,400 million, will join the Red Planet, which will take samples of rocks at different points on the Martian surface and keep them in hiding places so that it can be used. another mission brings them back to the future. on Earth, according to La Vanguardia.

The idea is that the rover, which will be part of the Mars Rover mission that is already exploring the Red Planet since 2012 with the Curiosity off-road circuit, visits as many sites as possible to try to discover the traces of life . Although this brings the robot to the limit of its possibilities.

About 200 expert astrophysicists from the Red Planet met, invited by the US Space Agency, in mid-October in California and discussed for three days where they should land. the SUV and which places would be more interesting to taste. Experts focused on choosing sites where rocks were formed in aquatic environments billions of years ago, in hopes of preserving the remains of life before the next year. The atmosphere of the planet evaporates and the surface does not bubble.

Thus, for the moment, the chosen places are Jezero, a fossilized delta; Syrtis Northwest, part of ancient bark that could be formed by underground mineral springs; and Midway, with a composition very similar to Syrtis Northwest. Jezero and Midway are separated by 28 km, which allows to visit both points.

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