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The four landing sites currently being considered for NASA's March 2020 rover
Source: NASA / JPL-Caltech
The site was nicknamed "Midway" because it lies halfway between two other candidate landing places: the Jezero delta and northern Syrtis. The third candidate previously identified is the Columbia Hills area of Gusev Crater, explored by NASA's Spirit Rover after landing in January 2004.
Jezero, Northeast Syrtis and Columbia Hills were selected as finalists at the third site of the year. Rover 2020 landing This workshop was held in February 2017.
Midway has the same morphological units as Syrtis Northeast and is relatively close to Jezero, said John Mustard, a professor in the department of science of the United States. Earth environment and planets at Brown University in Providence, Rhode. "It emerged from the scientific team members of March 2020, I believe it's possible to get two birds with a rover," said Mustard at Inside Outer Space
Source: NASA / JPL-Caltech
All of these possible drop-off points, including Midway, are expected to be badessed by the entry, descent and landing experts of March 2020. the safety of landing sites in support of the qua 3rd landing workshop this fall. NASA is expected to announce the final selection of the site early 2019.
As its name indicates, the March 2020 robot will take off in 2020. The six-wheeled robot, whose body is heavily based on the Curiosity rover of the NASA will hunt for signs of past Martian life and promising samples are hiding for the possible future return to Earth, among other tasks.
Leonard David is the author of "March: Our Future on the Red Planet", published by National Geographic. The book is a companion to the series of the National Geographic channel "Mars". A long-time writer for Space.com, David has been reporting on the space industry for more than five decades. Follow us on @Spacedotcom Facebook or Google+. This version of the story published on Space.com
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