Mars 2020 rover will pave the way for future manned missions

Making Oxygen will be the next big step from NASA. A Martian rover will attempt to make oxygen on the surface of the red planet when it lands there in 2021. The rover will carry seven scientific projects, aimed at paving the way for future the missions that attempt to bring man to the surface of Mars. The project includes, seeking evidence of life and storing samples to be brought back in the future.

Among them is a device for turning the CO2 that dominates the thin Martian air into oxygen. This could support human life or make rocket fuel for return missions.

The rover will also carry two cameras and an experimental weather station among its 40kg of instruments. "This is a really exciting day for us," said astronaut and NASA administrator John Grunsfeld, announcing the Mars 2020 scientificpayload in Washington the one-tonne, $1.9bn vehicle will be closely modelled on Curiosity, the rover that touched down on the red planet in August 2012.

Other NASA spacecraft can already produce oxygen from CO2 but the new "MOXIE" device will test this capability in the Martian atmosphere, for the first time. An oxygen supply would also be essential if people were to land on the planet.

There are not very many places that humans can go after the Moon. We could say it's practically a list of one and Mars is it! This change in focus was described as a "shift in gears" "There are not very many places that humans can go after the Moon. I would say it's practically a list of one and Mars is it!"

The announcement comes in the same week that NASA's earlier Mars rover, Opportunity, clocked up a record-breaking total of 20 miles (40km) of extra-terrestrial driving since its landing in 2004.

By Adriana Rueda

Source: BBC News Science & Environment

Image: BBC News Science & Environment