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The next NASA rover on Mars is really starting to come together.
Engineers at the agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California installed the head mast on the Rover March 2020, which should be launched on the red planet in July next year.
The robot also has a suspension system and wheels, both set up Thursday, June 13. The suspension system is permanent, but the wheels will eventually come off. they will be replaced by flight models after March 2020 flew to Florida, JPL officials told Space.com by email. (The rover will depart from Cape Canaveral Air Base on the Space Coast in Florida.)
Related: NASA Mars Rover 2020 Mission in Pictures (Gallery)
Technicians are working on NASA's Mars 2020 rover at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., On June 14, 2019. This image, which is a screenshot of NASA's "Seeing 2020" livestream, clearly shows his first wheels. These wheels will be replaced by the flight models after the rover has visited its launch site in Florida.
(Image: © NASA / JPL-Caltech)
The engineers secured the instrument-filled mast on June 5 in a JPL clean room.
"The complete integration of the mast – process including the installation of sensors of scientific instrument, electrical wiring and verification – continued until the following week to end June 11, "said NASA officials written in a statement today (June 14).
You can watch NASA engineers build the March 2020 rover live here, courtesy of JPL.
The 7-foot (2.2-meter) mast will travel to the Red Planet tidy against the body of the rover the size of a car. The mast will be lifted after the contact of March 2020 inside the crater of Jezero in February 2021.
Jezero has hosted a river delta in the ancient past. March 2020 will characterize the geology of the region, look for traces of life long lost on the red planet and carry out various scientific works. The six-wheeled robot will also collect and cache samples for their next return to Earth, although no recovery mission is yet in NASA's records.
March 2020 will also test various exploration technologies. For example, a small helicopter will travel with the rover to evaluate the potential for rotorcraft reconnaissance. And one of the March 2020 instruments will generate oxygen from the air and dominated by carbon dioxide from the red planet – a technology that would obviously be useful to future human pioneers.
Mike Wall's book on the search for extraterrestrial life, "Over there"(Grand Central Publishing, 2018, illustrated by Karl Tate), is out now. Follow him on Twitter @michaeldwall. Follow us on twitter @Spacedotcom or Facebook.
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