Skip to main content

NASA SCIENTISTS TAKE ANOTHER STEP TOWARD GETTING MARS ROCKS BACK TO EARTH

By Trevor Mogg 

NASA

The mission could provide vital information that helps pave the way for a human trip to Mars.

As the rover’s own name cleverly suggests, Mars 2020 is set to head for the red planet in three years’ time.

The mission, assuming everything goes to plan, will see the rover carry out geological assessments of its landing site on Mars, as well as examine the habitability of the harsh environment.

It’ll also search for signs of ancient Martian life, and attempt to make an assessment of the natural resources and hazards for future human visitors. Its work could also lead to the first-ever return of rock samples from the planet.

Landing site

After a recent meet-up with scientists at a workshop in Monrovia, California, NASA has taken a big step toward choosing the all-important landing site for Mars 2020.

The team narrowed the choice from eight locations to three, though the original list included 30 different sites. First up is Columbia Hills, Gusev Crater. “Mineral springs once burbled up from the rocks of Columbia Hills,” NASA said on its site, adding that the discovery that hot springs once flowed there was a notable achievement of the Mars Exploration Rover, Spirit, which stopped operating in 2010 after arriving on Mars in 2004.

Jezero Crater is another potential landing site. “Water filled and drained away from the crater on at least two occasions,” NASA said, adding that “more than 3.5 billion years ago, river channels spilled over the crater wall and created a lake.” Scientists believe that “microbial life could have lived in Jezero during one or more of these wet times. If so, signs of their remains might be found in lakebed sediments.”

The third location under consideration is Northeast Syrtis. NASA’s knowledge of the area reveals that “underground heat sources made hot springs flow and surface ice melt. Microbes could have flourished here in liquid water that was in contact with minerals. The space agency adds that the area “holds a rich record of the interactions that occurred between water and minerals over successive periods of early Mars history,” a factor that helped it onto the shortlist.

To help it make its final decision, expected some time next year, the team will further consider various criteria for each of the three sites. These include determining whether the rover would be able to achieve all of the mission’s scientific objectives, and whether it’d be able to move around safely without encountering any mobility issues.

More: NASA finalizes design for Mars 2020 rover

The 2020 mission, which will include drilling through Mars’ surface to gather rock samples, will be the first step in a multi-mission effort to get material from the red planet back to Earth.

Speaking about Mars 2020 last year, Geoffrey Yoder, acting associate administrator of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, said, “This mission marks a significant milestone in NASA’s Journey to Mars – to determine whether life has ever existed on Mars, and to advance our goal of sending humans to the red planet.”

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Bitcoin Laundering” Study: Where Do Criminals Turn to Mask Illicit Cryptoassets?

A recent study ( PDF ) from the Foundation for Defense of Democracies’ Center on Sanctions and Illicit Finance and blockchain analytics company Elliptic explored the “bitcoin laundering” ecosystem. In the study, Elliptic’s forensic analysis of the Bitcoin blockchain and other publicly available data were used to track the flows of illicit funds from 2013 to 2016. “This study aimed to identify where individuals turn in order to cash out or transmit bitcoins (BTC) acquired from illicit entities and to discover typologies for criminals ‘laundering’ bitcoins,” the report says. The study describes bitcoin laundering as a special type of money laundering that exists within the Bitcoin network where a user moves some bitcoins to a new address in a manner that obscures the original source of funds. The conversion of bitcoins into fiat currency on exchanges that lack adequate anti-money laundering (AML) and know-your-customer (KYC) policies can also fall under the category ...

Soaring Bitcoin Price Leads $159 Billion Crypto Market Recovery

Bitcoin  Well, somebody bought the dip. Just as critics were rushing to proclaim that the bitcoin bubble had burst, the markets staged a $159 billion recovery. The rally was headlined by the bitcoin price, which rebounded from its sub-$10,000 fling and is currently flirting with $12,000. Several other top-tier coins, meanwhile, returned single day increases in excess of 40 percent. Source: CoinMarketCap Altogether, the  cryptocurrency market cap  clawed its way back to $574 billion, representing a 38 percent recovery from Wednesday’s intraday low of $415 billion. Bitcoin Price Eyes $12,000 Wednesday served as a trial-by-fire for recent bitcoin investors, some of whom had purchased the flagship cryptocurrency for $19,000 at the height of the rally in mid-December. Bitcoin Price Chart The correction forced the  bitcoin price  below $10,000 for the first time since early December, but Thursday’s rally enabled bitcoin to regain a bit...

How to Boost Your Credit—or Build it Up From Nothing

Now that you know  how credit works , you probably want to know how to make it work  better . While nothing is better for your credit than paying your bills in full and on time, there are ways to give it a boost. Like it or not,  credit matters . It’s also complicated. In our “Everything You Need to Know About Credit” series, we’re breaking down the basics. When a lender or landlord looks at your credit, they’re not just looking for a three digit number, they want to know how you actually handle credit. That’s why your credit report is more important than your score. That said, your score matters, too, and the good news is, there are shortcuts for boosting it in a relatively short amount of time. And if you don’t have credit at all — let’s say you’re a teenager about to start college — your biggest focus should be on building up a credit history. That way you can apply for student loans, apartments, and make sure you  aren’t gouged on bills . Here are some options...