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Nasa announces new rover mission to Mars in 2020
James Sorenson
post Aug 4 2015, 10:06 PM
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According to this document, both the Navcams as well as the Hazcams will be color, and a possible separate "turret imager" would be included. I'm personally excited about the possible inclusion of the three EDL cameras, oh and hopefully the scout drone can make it to. smile.gif.

As far as the color engineering cameras, I seem to recall the bayer matrix can mess with either the stereo modelling on the ground, or the on board autonomy software. Seems like Paolo said something like that awhile back.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=...Go5oHRq3lutIOnw
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scalbers
post Aug 4 2015, 10:24 PM
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I would have voted to see an all-sky camera. Where does the turret imager point?


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James Sorenson
post Aug 4 2015, 10:37 PM
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The turret imager would be like MAHLI, mounted on the arm so it could be positioned in any direction that the arm is allowed to do.
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Paolo
post Aug 5 2015, 11:24 AM
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Mars 2020 Mulls Sample Preservation Strategies ADMIN: Full article requires free registration.

QUOTE
HOUSTON — While it sizes up high-value landing site candidates for its next Mars rover, NASA is developing strategies for protecting dozens of potential rock and soil samples cached on the red planet for harvest and return to Earth at some time in the future.
The Mars 2020 science objectives are to reach a landing site with ancient astrobiological potential and geological diversity, look for rocks with high potential for biosignatures, and acquire and preserve samples of rocks and some soil for future return to Earth.
Soon, the space agency expects to name an eight-member multi-disciplinary sample-return science board to gather additional advice on the most aggressive attempt yet to scrutinize samples of Mars with the latest in Earth-bound laboratory technologies. The objective is to determine if the neighboring planet was host to extensive habitable environments, such that it possibly harbored some form of life.
"The community is critical to the process," stressed planetary scientist John Grant, co-chair of NASA's Mars Landing Site Steering Committee, on Aug. 4, opening day of a three-day workshop on the site selection process in Monrovia, California, near the project's NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory headquarters. A second workshop is expected to reduce 30 potential landing-site candidates to eight, some of which may need additional scrutiny from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and other spacecraft circling or on the surface of the red planet. A third workshop planned for next year will attempt to cut the list of candidates to three or four sites.
Mars 2020, a $1.5 billion mission using hardware similar to the more expensive Mars Curiosity rover now exploring Mount Sharp, is scheduled for launch in July or August of 2020, with a landing in February 2021. Curiosity marks its third anniversary on the red planet on Aug. 6.
Early in its Gusev Crater roving, Curiosity established the presence of potentially habitable environments, setting the scientific table for its more ambitious sibling.
"One thing I must emphasize," Ken Farley, the Mars 2020 project scientist, told the opening session of NASA's 2nd Landing Site Workshop. "These are all equal goals. We must do all of these."
Using the same landing technique that produced Curiosity's "seven minutes of terror," the Mars 2020 rover will aim for a 10 X 8.75-mi. landing ellipse, where it can use its mobility to explore two "regions of interest."
As the landing-site selection process moves forward, NASA will evaluate whether to incorporate a terrain relative navigation (TRN) system into the entry, descent and landing system that would allow the descending rover to move slightly to avoid a previously unrecognized ground hazard. The TRN option is funded at least through the project's Preliminary Design Review in early 2016, Farley said.
The rover will be equipped with as many as 50 sample tubes, with at least 20 assigned to samples gathered during the rover's primary mission and the remainder available for potential extended operations.
The rover's seven primary science instruments were selected last July.
Most of the samples will be cored from rocks and all cached in sealable metal tubes. Mars 2020 will not be able to analyze the samples by itself, but could examine the walls of the rocks where the samples were extracted. The samples gathered from the first region of interest will be placed on the open terrain at a pre-specified caching depot. The Mars 2020 rover will then move on to the second region of interest for additional sample gathering and later return to the same caching depot to drop off the new samples.
The open exposure of the rover has raised concerns that surface temperatures on Mars could become high enough, especially if a landing site in the Martian southern hemisphere is selected, to degrade the cached samples before they can be gathered and returned to Earth.
"We are investigating how to deal with this," Farley said.
The current strategy is to coat the sealed tubes with aluminum oxide to reduce the excessive temperature threat to long-term preservation.
Still, the fate of the samples is unclear. NASA is focused on the human exploration of Mars in the mid-2030s; that would provide one possible means of transporting them back to Earth. Previous attempts to mount a robotic sample-return mission have been thwarted by technical and cost obstacles.
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climber
post Aug 5 2015, 08:36 PM
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Gusev crater? Hum...


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Explorer1
post Aug 6 2015, 01:46 AM
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I think that sentence is assuming once samples are back Martian orbit. Though I wonder if the possible reworking of the ARM (for a Phobos/Deimos target) could do get two birds with one stone...
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climber
post Oct 22 2016, 07:06 AM
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Hardware starts to come together
Attached Image


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elakdawalla
post Oct 24 2016, 03:09 PM
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Photo by Abigail Allwood, PI for PIXL instrument. Don't forget sourcing and crediting, folks. It's one thing that makes this a quality forum.


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PaulM
post Feb 11 2017, 08:59 PM
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QUOTE (climber @ Aug 5 2015, 09:36 PM) *
Gusev crater? Hum...

The rover could use a brush on her robot arm to clean Spirits solar panels to reboot Spirit. laugh.gif
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Explorer1
post Feb 12 2017, 01:32 AM
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Looks like the favorite is another crater, with actually verified lake: http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2017/02/jez...sa-s-2020-rover

Its pronounced Yezero, by the way. I know the language, trust me wink.gif
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Sean
post Feb 12 2017, 02:10 AM
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Here is a HiRISE/HRSC/CTX composite...



...and a zoomable 200 megapixel version...

Jezero Gigapan


*edit:updated with new version*


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Gladstoner
post Feb 12 2017, 11:30 PM
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QUOTE (Explorer1 @ Feb 11 2017, 07:32 PM) *
Looks like the favorite is another crater, with actually verified lake: http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2017/02/jez...sa-s-2020-rover

Its pronounced Yezero, by the way. I know the language, trust me wink.gif

Very interesting site. For reference, a wide view of Jezero Crater:

Attached Image


(Source: http://www.leonarddavid.com/go-ahead-given...ils-of-mission/ )

The alluvial fan, superficially at least, looks like a crevasse splay from the main channel.
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Sean
post Feb 13 2017, 05:29 AM
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Click thru to see a video made with the same data...









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Julius
post Feb 13 2017, 08:12 AM
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My main concern is the numerous sand dunes which could render the movement of the rover across the crater floor somewhat difficult up to the the delta river deposit. Otherwise Jezero crater seems o be an excellent choice.
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algorimancer
post Feb 13 2017, 09:59 PM
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It seems to me that, in terms of potential biology, lakes on Mars are parallels of islands on Earth. Simply per the species-area relationship, most species on Earth are on continents rather than islands, and many species are physically isolated from islands. On Mars I would expect the bulk of any biology to have been in the northern ocean, with perhaps something going on around Hellas in the south. Lakes on Mars would be very isolated, like remote islands in the pacific, very physically isolated in terms of biology. Hellas would have been like Australia, but more isolated.

With this in mind, preserved biological remnants from the early Mars seem most likely to be found in deltaic sediments along the edges of the putative northern ocean. Alternatively, near the remnants of hot springs which would have been on the floor of that ocean. A location which combines access to both of these things would be ideal.
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