Mars 2020 Mission Overview
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Mars 2020 Mission Overview Kenneth A. Farley1 · Kenneth H. Williford2 · Kathryn M. Stack2 · Rohit Bhartia3 · Al Chen2 · Manuel de la Torre2 · Kevin Hand2 · Yulia Goreva2 · Christopher D.K. Herd4 · Ricardo Hueso5 · Yang Liu2 · Justin N. Maki2 · German Martinez6 · Robert C. Moeller2 · Adam Nelessen2 · Claire E. Newman7 · Daniel Nunes2 · Adrian Ponce2 · Nicole Spanovich2 · Peter A. Willis2 · Luther W. Beegle2 · James F. Bell III8 · Adrian J. Brown9 · Svein-Erik Hamran10 · Joel A. Hurowitz11 · Sylvestre Maurice12 · David A. Paige13 · Jose A. Rodriguez-Manfredi14 · Mitch Schulte15 · Roger C. Wiens16 Received: 1 May 2020 / Accepted: 9 November 2020 © Springer Nature B.V. 2020
Abstract The Mars 2020 mission will seek the signs of ancient life on Mars and will identify, prepare, document, and cache a set of samples for possible return to Earth by a follow-on mission. Mars 2020 and its Perseverance rover thus link and further two long-held goals in The Mars 2020 Mission Edited by Kenneth A. Farley, Kenneth H. Williford and Kathryn M. Stack
B K.A. Farley
[email protected] K.H. Williford [email protected] K.M. Stack [email protected] R. Bhartia [email protected] A. Chen [email protected] M. de la Torre [email protected] K. Hand [email protected] Y. Goreva [email protected] C.D.K. Herd [email protected] R. Hueso [email protected] Y. Liu [email protected]
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planetary science: a deep search for evidence of life in a habitable extraterrestrial environment, and the return of martian samples to Earth for analysis in terrestrial laboratories. The Mars 2020 spacecraft is based on the design of the highly successful Mars Science Laboratory and its Curiosity rover, but outfitted with a sophisticated suite of new science instruments. Ground-penetrating radar will illuminate geologic structures in the shallow subsurface, while a multi-faceted weather station will document martian environmental conditions. Several instruments can be used individually or in tandem to map the color, texture, chemistry, and mineralogy of rocks and regolith at the meter scale and at the submillimeter scale. The science instruments will be used to interpret the geology of the landing site, to identify habitable paleoenvironments, to seek ancient textural, elemental, mineralogical and organic biosignatures, and to locate and characterize the most promising samples for Earth return. Once selected, ∼35 samples of rock and regolith weighing about 15 grams each will be drilled directly into ultraclean and sterile sample tubes. Perseverance will also collect blank sample tubes to monitor the evolving rover contamination environment. In addition to its scientific instruments, Perseverance hosts technology demonstrations designed to facilitate future Mars exploration. These include a device to generate oxygen gas by electrolytic decomposition of atmospheric carbon dioxide, and a small helicopter to assess performance of a rotorcraft in the thin martian atmosphe
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