NASA's next Mars mission will pioneer astronauts



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It's no secret that sending the first astronauts to Mars will be a monumental challenge marked by many "firsts". Since NASA has not launched a human mission beyond low Earth orbit for 47 years, crews will need a guide to show them the way. Enter the next mobile that the US space agency plans to send to the red planet.

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The Mars 2020 mission is designed to help NASA determine the best sites and landing systems for potential crew voyages to the red planet. Image credit: NASA

The Mars 2020 mission is designed to help NASA determine the best sites and landing systems for potential crew voyages to the red planet. Image credit: NASA

It's no secret that sending the first astronauts to Mars will be a monumental challenge marked by many "firsts". Since NASA has not launched a human mission beyond low Earth orbit for 47 years, crews will need a guide to show them the way. Enter the next mobile that the US space agency plans to send to the red planet.

Designed and built at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, March 2020, the agency's next robotic mission on the Red Planet also aims to help pave the way for early humans to visit Mars.

March 2020 is an automated mission. One of its goals will be to create a safer, more durable and more comfortable human landing on Mars than ever before.

The payload selected for the March 2020 rover. Image Credit: NASA

The payload selected for the March 2020 rover. Image Credit: NASA

As a design straight out of a Walt Disney educational short film, the March 2020 rover will feature a remote sensing mast. The mast is over 2.2 meters tall and will be used primarily for the extension of surveillance cameras after deployment shortly after touch.

Speaking of touching the ground, Mars 2020 will feature a high-tech camera system that will "look down" at the Martian surface. If the surface is considered non-passable, the undercarriage will move to another area to land. Known as relative terrain navigation, this system could pave the way for the landing of larger payloads, including those occupied by humans, on the Martian surface.

The new rover will also use what is known as the Mars Environmental Dynamics Analyzer (MEDA) to collect crucial weather information on the surface of Mars, in order to help design and build a More livable shelter for astronauts 33.9 million miles (54.6 million kilometers) for themselves.

Infographic showing the location of SHERLOC instruments (Raman & Luminescence for Organics and Chemicals) in the habitable environment of scanning with the SHERLOC instrument, on the March 2020 mobile. Image Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech

Infographic showing the location of SHERLOC instruments (Ramann & Luminescence for organic and chemical products) on the March 2020 rover in habitable environments to be digitized. Image Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech

In addition to becoming familiar with the outside environment, it is also planned to upgrade to March 2020 a device known as MOXIE, or experience using Mars Oxygen Oxygen Resource. Engineers working with MOXIE hope to explore the potential opportunity to convert carbon dioxide, the gas that makes up the vast majority of the Martian atmosphere (about 95%), with oxygen that can be used by the crew and engines of the world. spacecraft.

As part of a new, unique NASA experiment, the agency will send samples of five different materials for space suits to determine the best material to use for future astronaut combinations. A device called Scanning Habitable Environments with Raman and Luminescence for Organic and Chemical Products (SHERLOC) will help scientists study the effects of time on the materials of the combination.

The agency believes that one of the most crucial milestones is the radar imager for the Mars subsurface experiment (RIMFAX). The only purpose of this device will be to look deep into the Martian surface to try to find water in the form of ice, which could then be used by astronauts for the consumption of drinking water.

March 2020 is scheduled for the July 2020 launch with a potential landing on the Red Planet scheduled for February 2021. If the schedule is met, it should be launched from Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Base. in Florida, atop an Atlas of the United Launch Alliance. V 542.

Video provided by NASA / JPL

Tagged: Astronauts Lead Stories from Jet Propulsion Laboratory March 2020 NASA

Cullen Desforges

Always passionate about crewed flights, Desforges' passion came to fruition during a family vacation in 1999, when he was able to attend the launch of the Discovery shuttle on the STS-96. Since then, Desforges has been passionate about space exploration efforts. He lived in Orlando, Florida for a year, during which he had the opportunity to personally witness the flights of the historic CRS-4 and EFT-1 missions to Cape Canaveral. He earned his private pilot certificate in 2017, graduated in aviation management and is currently working as an operations analyst in the aviation sector in Georgia.

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